April 15th at Ntarama: Remembering a Collective Loss and Honoring the Lives Taken

On April 15th, families and survivors gathered once again at Ntarama Memorial to honor the innocent lives taken during the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. It is the day remembered as the moment when thousands who had sought safety inside Ntarama Church were met with unimaginable violence.

This date does not belong to one story—it holds meaning for an entire community. Among those who returned was survivor and author Liliane Murangwayire, who was born in Ntarama and lost nearly her whole family in that place. She walked with her husband and children through the path that once echoed with fear, now walked in remembrance.

The Ntarama Church, now preserved as one of Rwanda’s national genocide memorial sites, holds the bones, clothes, and final possessions of the victims. Every year, the church becomes a place where silence speaks louder than any speech, and remembrance becomes an act of resistance.

Liliane’s return, like many survivors’, is not only a journey of memory—but one of witness. She, like countless others, survived a plan that tried to erase them. Her presence speaks for those who no longer can.

This day is not only mine—it belongs to all the families who left loved ones here,” Liliane shared.

Every wall in that church whispers names never forgotten.

The pain lives on—in the eyes that lower in prayer, in the hands that lay down flowers, and in the deep silence that follows the reading of names. But so does strength.

As Kwibuka 31 is marked across Rwanda, Ntarama stands not just as a place of grief, but as a reminder of what was endured—and what must never be allowed to happen again.

Let us remember together. Twibuke Twiyubaka.