Timeline
Timeline
19 April 1994
Radio Rwanda broadcasts a speech by President Theodore Sindikubwabo in Butare inviting the population to “get to work”. Lieutenant-Colonel Cyprien Kayumba, director of the financial department of the Rwandan Ministry of Defense, oversees six deliveries of weapons to the genocide army, to the tune of $5,454,395. The last Belgian peacekeepers vacate Kigali. The Presidential Guard continues shelling Amahoro Stadium, where about 5000 refugees have been sheltering since the massacres began in Kigali.Interahamwe use machine guns, rockets, grenades and machetes to massacre approximately 2800 people in Kibungo.
18 April 1994
An estimated 50,000 Tutsi are killed in the hills of Bisesero. Another 12,000 Tutsi are killed after sheltering at the Gatwaro Stadium in Gitesi Commune in Kibuye, where they were ordered to go by the prefect, Dr. Clement Kayishema. Shallow mass graves are dug to hide the bodies of the victims. More are killed in the Adventist church and hospital of Mugonero. Théodore Sindikubwabo visits Gikongoro to thank the prefect personally for a job well done in carrying out the genocide in his prefecture. The Interim Government in Gitarama replaces Prefect Jean Baptiste Habyarimana of Butare and Prefect Godefrey Ruzindana of Kibungo with extremist prefects to continue the campaign of massacres.
17 April 1994
The murder of Tutsi in Kibuye Prefecture begins at St. John Catholic Church. Some 21,000 people are killed over the next two days. The militia led by the Prefect of Kibuye, Dr. Clement Kayishema, kills at least 11,000 in the church. The Prefect of Butare, Jean-Baptiste Habyarimana, who has been active in preventing and opposing the killings in Butare, is arrested. He is later killed along with his family. The Council of Ministers issues an announcement applauding the prefects who had accomplished their “tasks” with enthusiasm, and citing the names of the prefects of Butare and Kibungo as failures.
16 April 1994
Thousands of Tutsi are slaughtered at Ntarama Catholic Church and in surrounding areas, by soldiers from Gako military camp and from Kigali. They are joined by Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militias from Kanzenze, Ngenda, Gashora and other communes. A few survivors escape to the nearby marshes, where they continue to be hunted and killed throughout April. Bodies line the road from Kigali to Gitarama. 22 people, some of them believed to be Zairian nationals, are murdered. In Rukara commune, 800 Tutsi are found starving and injured in a building into which grenades have been thrown. They have been locked up without food since President Habyarimana’s death on 6 April.
15 April 1994
The Rwandan army and Interahamwe systematically massacre 10,000 refugees who have congregated at Nyamata Catholic Church from the surrounding area. They kill men, women, and children using grenades, guns, machetes and clubs. Shrapnel from grenades tear through the church ceiling 30 feet from the floor leaving the roof timbers spattered with flesh and blood. 450 Belgian soldiers leave UNAMIR and fly home.
14 April 1994
Massacres take place in Nyarubuye parish, Kibungo. Interahamwe and soldiers kill 5000 Tutsi gathered at the church in the parish of Musha. They throw grenades into the church then continue the killing with machetes and clubs. Thousands of refugees gathered at Nyamata Church come under fire from surrounding militia as the priest drives away, abandoning them to their certain fate. Soldiers, militiamen, and armed local villagers attack approximately 20,000 displaced Tutsi in and around the Kibeho Catholic Church and school complex. Around 200 are killed, but the attackers withdraw because of resistance. RPF troops take control of the Murambi Commune and find more than 5000 bodies of Tutsi, houses burnt and banana plantations destroyed. Evacuation of the expatriate community from Kigali is almost complete. About 150 French troops leave but 450 others remain behind.
13 April 1994
Killing continues in and around Kigali as well as in other prefectures. In Bicumbi Commune, about 20 km east of Kigali, 350 Tutsis are killed. The CDR and MRND militias start killing Tutsi civilians in Gisenyi, Cyangugu, and Butare.
12 April 1994
More refugees arrive at Nyamata Church, which is rapidly becoming a hub for displaced Tutsi. Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Claes meets UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to tell him Belgium is withdrawing its soldiers from UNAMIR. The Interim Government moves to Gitarama as RPF forces capture the strategic hill of Rebero and advance on Kigali.
11 April 1994
Belgian peacekeepers withdraw from ETO school in Kicukiro, Kigali, leaving 4000 Tutsi behind. The Interahamwe marches them to Nyanza and massacres them there. Up to 10,000 Tutsi are murdered at the Catholic Church and in surrounding areas at Ruhuha, Ngenda Commune. Almost the same number of Tutsi who sheltered at the Gashora Commune office and surrounding areas (Rumira and Kidogo lakes) are murdered by government security forces, Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militia. The first RPF military unit from Byumba arrives at the Parliament Building to support the 3rd battalion and continue rescue operations. More than 100 Tutsi patients are killed with bayonets in Kigali Hospital by government soldiers.
10 April 1994
Massacres and looting continue in Kigali. An estimated 10,000 dead bodies are taken from the streets and piled up at hospitals that are overflowing with the wounded. The US Embassy in Kigali closes, and Amb. Rawson along with 250 Americans are evacuated. The Presidential Guard fires heavy rockets at King Faisal Hospital killing 29 patients and wounding 70 others. Tutsi sheltering in Gahanga Parish are attacked by Interahamwe and villagers from Kagasa. Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello, Head of Catholic Church’s diplomatic mission in Rwanda, leaves the country. The African Synod of Bishops opens in Rome, with a mass at St.Peter’s Basilica where Pope John Paul II pleads for an end to the “fratricidal killings” in Rwanda.