Rwanda marks 25 years since genocide

Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP

Rwandans gathered on Sunday to mark the 25th anniversary of the genocide that killed more than 800,000 people.

President Paul Kagame lit a remembrance flame at Gisozi genocide memorial site, where about 250,000 victims are said to be buried.

The flame will burn for 100 days to mark the time it took the Hutu majority to massacre those belonging to the Tutsi minority.

The fighting, which had been triggered after a plane carrying Rwanda’s Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, was shot down by unknown assassins, ended in July 1994.

On Sunday evening, officials will also join around 2,000 people in a "walk to remember" from parliament to the national soccer stadium.

 

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