EAC mulls day to commemorate the 1994 Rwanda genocide

The East African Community (EAC) is exploring the possibility of having a commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda on April 7 of every year as an EAC Day, the regional bloc said in a statement on Tuesday.

The statement said the pledge was made by EAC Deputy Secretary General Andrea Aguer Ariik Malueth during the commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsi on Sunday.

Malueth said a proper request will very soon be tabled to the EAC Council of Ministers for consideration as the EAC set to take a front role to ensure that what happened in Rwanda in 1994 never happens again anywhere in the region.

He said to show solidarity with the government and people of Rwanda to commemorate the genocide against the Tutsi, the EAC leaders had previously erected a genocide monument in the EAC gardens at its headquarters in Tanzania's northern city of Arusha in memory of the victims of the genocide.

"We are going to lay strategies to ensure that the genocide vice is uprooted from our region, through discussions and reflections on the dangers of genocide ideology and its denial," said Malueth.

He commended Rwanda for the tremendous progress that has exceeded expectations, making the impossible possible and the unexpected a reality, where unity and reconciliation are being realised at a very convincing and highly significant level.

About 1 million people, mostly of the Tutsi community and moderate Hutus, were killed in the genocide by Hutu extremists during a massacre within 100 days in 1994.