Mariella Furrer Photography

News Stories: Rwandan Genocide & Congo

On April 6th, 1994 the Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down over Kigali. What ensued over the next hundred days were mass killings where an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed using clubs and machetes. As the crisis unfolded hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled to neighbouring Congo, Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda.

Over a million people, mostly Hutus, flee Rwanda into Goma, the border town in Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. June 1994
   
A woman lies dead in the middle of the road as millions of people, mostly Hutus, flee Rwanda into Goma, the border town in Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. July 1994
   
A man carries his son to the MSF camp during a Cholera epidemic which killed an estimated 50'000 Rwandan Refugees in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. July 1994
     
  
A young boy sleeps on a bench beside piles of machetes confiscated by the Zairean military as Rwandan refugees, mainly Hutus, fled across the border into Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. July 1994
   
A young boy, who's shoulder was chopped off, is tended to after surviving a massacre. Kigali, Rwanda, May 1994.
   
A young boy walks passed bodies, rolled up in mats, waiting to be picked up and buried in mass graves during a Cholera epidemic which killed an estimated 50'000 Rwandan Refugees in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. July 1994
     
  
On the floor of a church where many people had been massacred. Rwanda, May 1994.
   
A Tutsi woman in hiding sleeps with a cross by her side. She and her family fled and were hiding in a warehouse. Rwanda, May 1994.
   
Massacre at a church. Rwanda, June 1994
     
  
Skulls on display in memory of the victims of the Rwandan genocide. Rwanda, 1995
   
A Tutsi woman in hiding in a church during the Rwandan genocide. People were to scared to leave the compound to forage for food that they starved.
   
Two injured Hutu women wait for medical treatment at the Biaro refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The camp came under attack by Rwandan and DRC military. The refugees that weren't killed returned emactiated and with terrible injuries. May 1997
     
  
Over a million people, mostly Hutus, flee Rwanda into Goma, the border town in Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. June 1994
   
A young starving boy is tended to at a UNICEF feeding centre. Zaire. July 1994.
   
Pile of machetes confiscated from Rwandan refugees when they fled across the border to Zaire. July 1994
     
  
Remains of a woman and a young girl. The woman's skirt is hitched and a farming tool lies between her legs. An estimated 250'000 women were raped during the Rwandan genocide.
   
A moderate Hutu, with brain injuries after being attacked for being a Tutsi sympathiser, sits in a makeshift hospital in Nyanza, Rwanda, June 1994.
   
A young boy, survivor of a massacre sits in a makeshift hospital. Rwanda, April 1994.
     
  
   
  
A young Hutu boy and his mother return to Biaro refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo weeks after fleeing when the camp came under attack by Rwandan and DRC military. The refugees that weren't killed returned emactiated and with terrible injuries. May 1997
     
  
A mother , Rwandan refugee, keeps returning to the place where her son's body was placed to check to see if maybe he was still alive. The boy succumbed to cholera during an outbreak which killed an estimated 50'000 people. Zaire.
   
Mass grave is dug in larva rock for Rwandan refugees died of cholera. Goma, Zaire, July 1994.
   
Children search for their loved ones lost during their flight across the border from Rwanda to Zaire at ICRC. Goma, Zaire, 1994
     
  
A year after the genocide, the Rwandan goverment make preparations to give victims of the genocide a proper burial. Rwanda, April 1995.