Siboniyo remained alone after his relatives were massacred in the local church

During the Genocide against the Tutsi, Siboniyo was living with parents and four brothers and sisters combined. The whole family was living in former Gishamvu and he wasa 28 years old. As the genocide erupted, he fled to the neighboring Burundi as his parents chose to flee to a nearby Nyumba local church.

He is currently 48 years old and has recovered from the hardships of the genocide. Siboniyo Athanase said that even before the genocide erupted, some Hutu were used to attack Tutsi households but neighboring Hutu neighboring Hutu intervened to stop them.

He said that the killings started during the end of April, 1994 after a brazing speech of the then President Sindikubwabo Théodore who called upon Hutus to go ‘to work’.

After the hate speech of the Sindikubwabo, extremist Hutu started killing Tutsis and some of the later ones fled to Burundi and others to the Nyumba church. He said he fled to Burundi alongside his cousin to get far from the killings. As the journey continued, he has been injured by the killers with machetes.

The killers have thrown him in the Akanyaru River but were rescued by Burundian armed forces that brought him to a nearby health centre.

After the genocide, he returned home and sadly he found that all of his relatives were massacred. As he was wounded by machetes of the killers who willing to kill him, he endured both physical and psychological wounds.

In 1996, as living conditions became hard in Gishamvu, he chose to resettle in Kigali city. In the Rwandan capital, he had none to support neither, someone to provide him with a decent job.

In Kigali city, life became more challenging and he left the capital and returned at his native neighborhood. He tried to up-build his living conditions even though the course was too hard.

He was to given a cow and a house as to help him recover from the hardships and progress. He said that at his age (48 years) he wants to get married and give birth to children.

UM– USEKE.RW