Rwandan youth still suffer from 1994 genocide

UNITED NATIONS – Rwanda’s children are still suffering from the 1994 genocide in the central African nation, a decade after the start of the massacre, the UN Children’s Fund said last week.

“Tens of thousands lost their mothers and fathers. Thousands were victims of horrific brutality and rape.Many were forced to commit atrocities.The impact of the tragedy simply cannot be overstated,” Unicef Executive Director Carol Bellamy said.Unicef issued a new report on the genocide’s lingering impact on children ahead of ceremonies around the world marking the 10th anniversary of the slaughter, which began after a plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian presidents was shot down on April 6 1994, near the Rwandan capital of Kigali, killing both men.Over the next hundred days, an estimated 800 000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered by Hutu extremists as the world looked on, largely in silence.Unicef said some 95 000 children were orphaned in the genocide.Ten years later, the slaughter and a later related surge in AIDS cases have combined to leave Rwanda with one of the world’s highest proportions of child-headed households, the UN agency said.About 101 000 children are now on their own in Rwanda, either because their parents were killed in the genocide, died from AIDS or were imprisoned for a crime related to the 1994 mass slaughter, it said.The surge in AIDS infections appears related to the genocide because the mass killings were accompanied by a wave of other atrocities, including mass rapes, it said.By 2001, about 264 000 Rwandan children had lost one or both parents to AIDS, representing 43 per cent of the country’s orphans, and that figure is expected to rise to over 350 000 by 2010, Unicef said.More than 400 000 Rwandan youths are out of school and one of every five children dies before reaching age 5, Unicef said, expressing hope the world “never again allows such a catastrophe to go unchecked”.- Nampa-ReutersThousands were victims of horrific brutality and rape.Many were forced to commit atrocities.The impact of the tragedy simply cannot be overstated,” Unicef Executive Director Carol Bellamy said.Unicef issued a new report on the genocide’s lingering impact on children ahead of ceremonies around the world marking the 10th anniversary of the slaughter, which began after a plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian presidents was shot down on April 6 1994, near the Rwandan capital of Kigali, killing both men.Over the next hundred days, an estimated 800 000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered by Hutu extremists as the world looked on, largely in silence.Unicef said some 95 000 children were orphaned in the genocide.Ten years later, the slaughter and a later related surge in AIDS cases have combined to leave Rwanda with one of the world’s highest proportions of child-headed households, the UN agency said.About 101 000 children are now on their own in Rwanda, either because their parents were killed in the genocide, died from AIDS or were imprisoned for a crime related to the 1994 mass slaughter, it said.The surge in AIDS infections appears related to the genocide because the mass killings were accompanied by a wave of other atrocities, including mass rapes, it said.By 2001, about 264 000 Rwandan children had lost one or both parents to AIDS, representing 43 per cent of the country’s orphans, and that figure is expected to rise to over 350 000 by 2010, Unicef said.More than 400 000 Rwandan youths are out of school and one of every five children dies before reaching age 5, Unicef said, expressing hope the world “never again allows such a catastrophe to go unchecked”.- Nampa-Reuters