This is a story of Daniel from the commune of Gituza, a regional district of Byumba prefecture, North of Rwanda. When Rwandan Patriotic Army troops neared his village, in April 1996, he and his wife and three sons ran south on the main road then headed east toward the commune of Rukara, where they joined thousands of other Hutus from neighbouring communes who were also fleeing for their lives.
After 10 days of flight, staying one step ahead of the killers, Daniel along with his family and an estimated 3,000 other displaced Hutus, finally settled at the Karambi Trading Centre, worn out from hiding and scrounging for food.
On April 20, 1994, RPA soldiers invaded the village and surrounded them. At about 7 am, sixty men brandishing machine guns and rifles told the hordes of people to gather in the garden at the back of the trading centre. Next, the soldiers ordered them to sit down so they could listen to the RPF’s plan for them.
The shooters surveyed the human beings before them, took aim, and began to spray the crowd with machine-gun fire. Some threw grenades. Victims who tried to run were shot and fell on the already injured. The blood of others gushed onto those still alive. Daniel took a bullet in the leg and was hit by shrapnel in the stomach, buttocks and forehead. After he collapsed he did not move or yell. At one point he thought, “This is what dying is.” The gunfire stopped, but he realized the killers were only pausing to reload.
Daniel staggered up from the mass of corpses around him and ran as fast as he could, hoping the soldiers would not shoot him in the back. He’d picked his moment well, and got away. He sought refuge in the Akagera Park, among the grevillea and sausage trees and papyrus swamps.
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Rever, J., 2018. In Praise of Blood, The Crimes of the Rwanda Patriotic Front. Toronto: Random House Canada, p81 -82