Rwanda commemorates victims of genocide 25 years on

Rwandans are commemorating this Sunday the victims of the genocide which started on April 6, 1994 and lasted about 100 days, claiming the lives of 800,000 people, or 10 percent of the country’s total population. The slaughter of Tutsi and moderate Hutus was triggered by the downing of a plane which carried President Juvenal Habyarimana and his counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, who were both Hutus. Rwandan President Paul Kagame is scheduled to lead a solemn ceremony to honor the dead, which will be attended by at least 10 heads of state. Kagame was also the person who headed a Tutsi-led rebel force, which stopped the mass killings after intervening from Uganda and seizing control of Rwanda.