Kibuye is a town in western Rwanda. During the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the town was the site of a horrific mass slaughter. A doctor present in Kibuye during the massacres estimated there were 10,000 Tutsi refugees in Kibuye on the eve of the violence. Colonel Patrick Sartre, an investigator on the presence of the army in Rwanda during the genocide, estimates that 12,000 Tutsis were killed on the 16 and 17 at the Gatwaro stadium, the Saint-Michel parish complex, and the surrounding areas.
The memorial is built on the site where many trapped Tutsis lost their lives. It stands where the Saint Pierre parish of Kibuye once was, next to the old Gatwaro stadium. Today, the stadium site has been replaced by a primary school. The memorial is part of a national network of commemorative sites in Rwanda, including the Ntarama Genocide Memorial, the Kigali Genocide Memorial, and the Nyarubuye Genocide Memorial.
Many other sites across Rwanda commemorate the genocide. In the area around the Kibuye memorial, there are dozens of commemorative sites and mass graves. Some of these mass graves have been moved, while the remains from other sites have been gathered and assembled at Kibuye.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Mutabor
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