A couple of weekends ago I had the chance to go to Kibuye for a Women's Retreat our church put on. Kibuye is a small town located on the shores of Lake Kivu. We have visited a few times for various conferences and retreats but never had a chance to visit the Genocide Memorial Church. I was finally able to on this trip.
I was reading in my Bradt book about the church and I think it is best to just quote it to describe what happened here.
"During the genocide the prefecture of Kibuye experienced the most comprehensive slaughter of Tutsis anywhere in Rwanda. Previously there had been around 60,000 in the prefecture, an unusually high proportion of about 20%. When the French troops arrived afterwards they estimated that up to nine out of every ten had been killed."
Many churches were involved in the genocide. People came to the churches to seek refuge only to be killed. Over 11,400 people were killed in the church below. There is a mass grave and memorial. Here is what Lindsey Hilsum has to say in an article for Granta:
"The church stands among trees on a promontory above the calm blue of Lake Kivu. The Tutsis were sheltering inside when a mob, drunk on banana beer, threw grenades through the doors and windows and then ran in to club and stab to death the people who remainded alive. It took about three hours."
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