The Nyamata Story!
Nyamata and the surrounding area are classified as one of the regions that was most devastated by the 1994 Genocide. Apart from 24,000 people killed there, the reason for this can be found in the history of the Bugesera region. In the beginning of the 1960s, Tutsi people from different areas of Rwanda were forced to leave their homes and go to live in this region which was considered very unhealthy at that time. Therefore, Bugesera became a region whose population was predominantly Tutsis.
In 1992, many Tutsis were assassinated in Bugesera. When the Genocide started in April of 1994 many people from Nyamata and surrounding areas came to gather in the town of Nyamata. The Catholic Church and nearby houses belonging to the priests and sisters became havens for the frightened people who fled there hoping to escape death. They used the church as a refuge, thinking the militia would not get in and kill them in a place usually thought of as a sanctuary. However, according to the testimonies given by survivors, on April 10th 1994 about 10,000 people were killed in and around the area of the Catholic Church. People from all around congregated in the church and locked the iron door with a padlock to protect themselves from the marauding killers. Members of “Interahamwe”, the Hutu militia, and the Rwandese Government Forces from the surrounding area managed to break down the door and entered the church with their rifles, grenades and machetes. They massacred all the people who were inside this church and also the people in the surrounding area.
Since 1998, in collaboration with INMR the ministry of youth, sports and culture has begun the treatment of human remains which are kept in a crypt inside the parish buildings. Outside the parish, a cemetery was set up where the victim’s bones are buried and protected against rain.