For many Americans, July 4 commemorates independence and the dawn of a new nation. For Rwandans, that same day signifies liberation, reconstruction and reconciliation, marking the end of the Rwandan Genocide. As the country and its diaspora celebrate their 32nd year of freedom from ethnic-based violence, many genocide survivors harbor a deep commitment to ensuring history does not repeat itself.
Lasting 100 days in 1994, the Tutsi people of Rwanda were targeted by the Hutu, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu. Stemming from long-term tensions between ethnic groups exacerbated by divisive ideologies from colonizing nations and people in power, the genocide remains a warning of the dangers of hatred and extremism.
Although the tragedy looms over Rwanda’s history, the country has progressed in ways that once seemed impossible.
“Rwanda’s liberation literally means the rebirth of Rwanda,” Arthur Asiimwe, deputy ambassador of Rwanda to the United States, told The Informer. “[Building] a prosperous, progressive country… has been a work in progress for all these years, but the fruits of this hard work are evident for everybody to see. That’s why we celebrate it.”
The country underwent a massive transformation after the genocide, with residents having more opportunity for financial success, longer lives and increased education.
Rwanda boasts one of the fastest-growing economies on the African continent, with an annual GDP increase of 8% since 2000. Since more stability in the landlocked country led to a drastic decrease in ethnic-based violence, life expectancy increased from 26.2 during the height of the massacres to 70.54 in 2025. Until 1994, ethnic segregation limited access to education, and only 2,000 students graduated from university annually. After decades of prioritizing education, the 2023-2024 school year counted 33,065 graduates in higher education.
Rwandans who were directly affected by the genocide, like Asiimwe, have been dedicated to doing the work necessary to guarantee the country’s prosperity. Having grown up in refugee camps in neighboring countries due to high tensions, the deputy ambassador knew all too well the burden of being looked down on as a foreigner.
“[I] grew up yearning to go back to [my] home,” Asiimwe told The Informer. “When the attempt came to liberate the country,… we all went back home to rebuild [Rwanda],… and that’s what I’ve been doing for these last 32 years.”
Loss, Survival, Service
Due to the trauma the genocide caused, many survivors— if they returned to Rwanda— waited decades after the country’s liberation to do so. This was the case for Jacqueline Murekatete, founder of the Genocide Survivors Foundation (GSF), who was 9 years old when the 1994 atrocities took place. She didn’t set foot on her homeland until 2010, as she remembers all the trials and tribulations she faced when narrowly escaping death as a child.
When the massacres commenced, Murekatete was separated from her parents and six siblings, as she fled her home village with her grandmother and cousin. She witnessed countless deaths at the Musange Commune, an office where many Tutsi sought refuge, and where 27,000 men, women and children were killed. She later fled to an orphanage with the help of a Hutu man sent by a maternal uncle who was hiding in Nyanza, where she saw various children die either by infection or genocide perpetrators.
“Even at a young age, I understood that… genocide was really the worst crime that human beings could commit,” Murekatete told The Informer, “because you are being targeted simply because of your identity– something that none of us ever choose.”
Although she held onto hope that her Hutu neighbors were helping hide her immediate family in her home village throughout the 100 days of targeted attacks, that was not the case. They had been taken to the Nyaborongo River by the neighbors she had grown up with and were killed.
Once a child with a large family that supported her hopes and dreams, Murekatete was suddenly an orphan. She came to the U.S. shortly thereafter, at 10 years old, after an uncle adopted her.
“I think I lost a lot of my childhood innocence,” the GSF founder shared. “I just couldn’t believe how people hear about people being targeted because of who they are or what they believe, and have a means to stop that and choose not to.”
Sandrine Irankunda, a doctoral candidate in African Studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, was 4 years old during the genocide. Unlike Murekatete, she has no recollection of living through the cruelties. She survived it with her siblings and father, who did not recount the story of their survival to her until two years ago.
Irankunda’s parents had been living in the U.S., but in March 1994, they traveled to Rwanda to visit her maternal grandmother, who had fallen ill. Since her father was not born in the village they were visiting, he was able to convince attackers that he was Hutu. Once they started to catch on, Irankunda’s family had to flee to Burundi, but were separated from her father at one point. In an act of motherly devotion, Irankunda’s mother made a pact with the perpetrators to let her bring the children to their father, and she would return to let them kill her.
Most of Irankunda’s maternal family was murdered in the genocide.
“Growing up, it was very silent,” the doctoral candidate told The Informer. “I think my father was traumatized, and my entire family that survived– no one really wanted to talk about it, and I didn’t want to ask any questions because of how intense it was.”
Not remembering how she survived the genocide impacted Irankunda’s sense of identity. While she knew she was a survivor, she didn’t feel like one since she couldn’t tell her story from her perspective.
As she works on her dissertation, which will focus on genocide studies, Irankunda is drawing from the lasting impact the tragedy had on her to educate others about the causes and effects of genocide, almost as a way to deal with the disconnect that came from not knowing her mother and her side of the family.
“I’m doing my dissertation on genocide because I think it was a way for me to heal and reconstruct my history,” Irankunda told The Informer. “As long as we keep talking about the victims of the genocide, and as long as we keep them in our conversations and in our thinking, then they don’t really die.”
For Murekatete, she recognizes the lives lost in the genocide through her work with GSF, which aims to prevent genocide and support survivors. Through classroom lectures, community awareness programs, public discussion programs, educational trips to countries recovering from genocide, the organization aims to fight hate and bigotry, and advance respect for diversity.
The organization uplifts survivors by providing them with education, economic empowerment, legal resources, advocacy, and health and social services. By doing this, Murekatete hopes to honor the lives lost by caring for the orphans and widows left to carry on their legacy.
“I’m one of those people who really believes that with opportunity comes responsibility,” she told The Informer, “and that if you have opportunity, you should try to extend [that to] wherever you can.”
History Has Its Eyes on You
In a world where genocide is still prevalent, affecting people in Palestine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and more, Rwanda’s story of conflict, liberation and rebirth can serve as a lesson worldwide about the risk of fueling hate and intolerance, and remaining complacent in the face of injustice.
Asiimwe believes such atrocities happen in three phases: planning, the extermination of targeted communities and denial. The deputy ambassador told The Informer that the best way to honor and do right by the lives lost in the Rwandan genocide is to keep history alive and counter any rhetoric that denies its occurrence.
He believes that the shared commitment to Rwanda’s redemption can provide the rest of the world with the enlightenment needed to abolish prejudice and extremism, while also demonstrating Africa’s immense potential as a continent and as a people.
“I have hope because our people are all mobilized for the common destination of building a nation that is at peace, that is progressive, that gives opportunity to everyone,” Asiimwe told The Informer, “and that is a model for African governments to serve and show that not everything in Africa is bad.”
Murekatete believes the key to preventing more atrocities like the one she lived through is in electing officials who won’t monopolize on their power and spread divisive ideologies for their own gain, and who are committed to unifying their respective countries.
While 32 years of liberation gives the GSF founder hope, she acknowledges that if the country falls under the wrong leadership, chances of genocide reocurring are possible. Many such tragedies occur due to the seeds planted by colonialism, but are also propagated by decisionmakers who view conflict as a means to gain or stay in power.
“The ideology of genocide… didn’t start in 1994, and it didn’t end then,” Murekatete told The Informer. “The sooner we recognize our common humanity and that we’re in this together, the sooner we’re actually going to build a better future for all of us.”
Irankunda stands firm on her belief that genocide is made possible when outsiders debate the politics of conflicts rather than intervening and helping those in need. This happened in Rwanda when Tutsi residents were being targeted, as the international community remained on the sidelines, and vulnerable communities were left to fend for themselves while their families and neighbors were brutally massacred.
When rebuilding a country that many deemed a lost cause after the genocide ended, treating liberation as a healing journey that advances solidarity among its people and other nations, then peaceful coexistence and further development are extremely attainable.
“In the darkest times, there’s always hope you can rebuild, [and] there’s always hope that people can heal,” Irankunda told The Informer. “When you look at Rwanda’s liberation, the fact that 32 years later… we still have a lot of work to do, but have made a lot of progress, that’s a testament to human resilience.”
