Nyamata Church

The Rwanda Genocide began in April 1994. Many Tutsi people gathered here as churches were considered a place of safety. 10,000 people gathered here and the people locked themselves in. The church walls and doors today show how the perpetrators made holes in the walls of the church so that grenades could be thrown into the church. After this the people inside were shot or killed with machetes. The ceiling of the church shows the bullet holes and the altar cloth is still stained with blood. There were hundreds of coffins inside which have the remains of people inside, there were benches piled with clothing, letters and identification cards.

Most of the remains have been buried but there are still a large quantity that are being cleaned by volunteers and buried. We were able to see the volunteers out the back cleaning the bones of both adults, children and infants, it just gave me a sick feeling to my stomach.

People in the surrounding area were also killed after the massacre at the church, once killed they were ordered to be removed from the street and put into the church where they couldn't been seen. It is difficult to comprehend that 50,000 are buried here.Read more