that shocked the world. Kagame lit a remembrance flame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 mainly Tutsi victims are believed to be buried, as the country began its annual 100 days of mourning that coincides with the length of the slaughter.
“Our people have carried an immense weight with little or no complaint. This has made us better and more united than ever before. The fighting spirit is alive in us. What happened here will never happen again,” Kagame said. Dignitaries lit a candle which they used to light candles held by the youth, a symbolic passing of the baton to the younger generation, before the stadium turned into a sea of flickering lights. Two thirds of Rwanda’s population was born after the genocide.
Kagame has kept an authoritarian hold as he steers the small, landlocked East African nation through economic recovery. Growth in 2018 was a heady 7.2 percent, according to the African Development Bank . Some 10 leaders were expected to pay their respects, mostly from nations across the continent. Former colonial ruler Belgium sent Prime Minister Charles Michel.