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DPA
Kigali
Exhumation of about 30,000 bodies from a dam outside Rwanda’s capital of Kigali began on Sunday, more than a quarter century after the genocide in which more than 800,000 people were killed.
“So far, 50 bodies have been exhumed. The challenge we face now is that the valley dam contains water but we are trying to dry it up,” Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of genocide survivor organization Ibuka, told dpa.
The discovery of this latest site is the most significant in a while, authorities say.
New graves keep being discovered as prisoners involved in the East African nation’s genocide in 1994 complete their sentences and provide new information about where victims were buried.
Authorities say the valley dam, east of Kigali, had been dug by Chinese farmers before 1994 to provide rice-farming irrigation.
The exhumation comes two days before Rwandans begin commemorations of the genocide, in which more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutus were killed during a 100-day period.
This year’s commemoration activities, however, can be followed only on television and social media as the government has banned gatherings due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
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06/04/2020
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