Nyarubuye massacre

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Massacre at a Rwandan Church in Nyarubuye, 1994

The Nyarubuye massacre is the name given to the killing of an estimated 20,000 civilians on April 15-April 16, 1994 at the Nyarubuye Roman Catholic Church in Kibungo Province, 140 km (60 miles) east of the Rwandan capital Kigali. The victims were Tutsis and Hutu moderates who had sought refuge in the church. Men, women and children were reported to have been killed indiscriminately, with the attackers allegedly using spears, machetes, clubs, hand grenades and automatic weapons.

The massacre was part of the April-June 1994 Rwandan Genocide in which an estimated 937,000 people have died.

On 3 December 2003 a Rwandan court in Rukira, Kibungo found 18 people guilty of genocide crimes. Gitera Rwamuhizi, a leader of the group responsible for the killings, was sentenced to life imprisonment, and after pleading guilty the sentence was dropped to 25 years. The rest were sentenced to terms ranging from 7 to 16 years.