Hutu genocide and the killings in churches
On 8 June 1997, Tutsi dominated RPA soldiers, under the high command of Kayumba Nyamwasa, killed 120 Hutu civilians inside a Protestant church in Cyamabuye cellule, in Nanga secteur, Karago commune, in Gisenyi. Scores of unarmed civilians were killed in other churches. For example, RPA soldiers went on to attack the houses of two community leaders and killed a further 38 people in their homes, including an 85-year-old man, Bagabo, and a 90-year-old woman, Kaje. Two other attacks on churches were reported: one in June 1997, on an Adventist church in Mwiyanike secteur (also in Karago, Gisenyi), in which scores of people were killed by RPF soldiers; and another on 3 July 1997, in which at least 75 people were reportedly killed in a church in Gitera secteur, Nkumba commune, in Ruhengeri.
Reports from various parts of Ngororero sous-préfecture, in Gisenyi préfecture, indicate that during June and July 1997, as many as 984 people were killed. Sources from the area reported that on 11 June, 23 were killed in Ntobwe secteur, Kibilira commune; on 13 June, around 20 people were killed in Rucano secteur, Satinsyi commune, including 10 children aged between 3 and 16 and an 8-month-old baby; on 29 June, 212 were killed near Ruhunga forest; on 2 July, nine people, seven of them children, were killed in Rucano secteur, Satinsyi commune; on 6 July, 349 people were killed in Musagara secteur, in Satinsyi commune; on 11 July, a market day in Ngororero, 19 were killed; on 12 July, 67 were killed in Rugarama secteur, Kibilira commune. In addition to these specific incidents, 149 people were killed in Gitarama secteur, 36 in Ntaganzwa secteur, and around 100 in Sovu and Musenyi secteurs. All these killings have been attributed by local sources to RPA soldiers. (Amnesty International, 1997, p 8-9)
The préfectures of Ruhengeri and Gisenyi have suffered the highest number of extrajudicial executions by RPA soldiers. Amnesty International has received countless reports of unarmed civilians being killed there by the RPA, in the wake of reported attacks by “infiltrators”.
Source: Amnesty International, Rwanda : Ending the silence, AI Index: AFR 47/32/97, September 1997