By RFIPalled on 07-04-2019Modified on 07-04-2019 at 17:40

Twenty-five years ago, a genocide began in Rwanda. Here are some sound clips from the archives of Radio France International. They were broadcast in April 1994, at the beginning of the massacres, and already testified to the ongoing tragedy.

On 7 April 1994, the day after the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana , Rwanda's Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana testified by telephone from her home, where she is under siege. A few hours later, she was murdered.

We are terrified. We are inside the houses, we are lying on the ground. We can not go out. (...) In my opinion, we are suffering the consequences of the death of the Head of State.

Agathe Uwilingiyimana

07-04-2014 - By RFI

In the days that follow, the massacres increase. All the witnesses, in shock, try to tell the extent. On April 8, 1994, a French doctor contacted by telephone described a " catastrophic situation ", the " hell " prevailing on the spot.

Here when one massacres, there are very few survivors.

A French doctor

07-04-2014 - By RFI

At this point, it is still difficult to identify the perpetrators of the massacres, but the ethnic dimension is already mentioned.

Jean Hélène, RFI correspondent in the region, is then in Kigali where he also works for the French newspaper Le Monde . Listen to his report on April 10, 1994, from the Mille Collines Hotel.

The morgue is overflowing with corpses.

Jean Hélène

07-04-2014 - By RFI

On April 23, 1994, Roland Sidler, delegate of the ICRC, present on the spot since about ten days, evokes on RFI " a butcher ", " a slaughterhouse ": " One cuts, one cuts, one mutilates the people. The corpses strew the grounds. You can see who still have jolts in the street because they are not completely finished. "

In Europe, one imagines fights with the barrel, the rifle. Here we must forget that. It's a silent fight, it's a machete fight.

Roland Sidler

07-04-2014 - By RFI

According to the UN, in about 100 days at least 800,000 men, women and children have been killed, making this mass crime the fastest genocide in history.

► See also: Rwanda: the mechanisms that led to the genocide

* The date of April 7, 2014, in the windows of the sound, corresponds to the date of first publication of these archives on our website.

    On the same subject

    Genocide in Rwanda: a return to the attack of 6 April 1994

    Rwanda: the mechanisms that led to the genocide

    Rwanda: the memory of the genocide, for the next generation

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