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Rwanda 1994: days of horror, moments of hope
30-03-2004 Photo gallery
Between April and July 1994 the population of Rwanda experienced a nightmare; hundreds of thousands failed to survive it. Selection of photographs by Claude Gluntz of the Swiss magazine L'Illustré, Thierry Gassmann, Josué Anselmo and Patrick Fuller of the ICRC.
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In April 1994, with the world's attention split between the former Yugoslavia and South Africa, violence erupted in central Africa's "Land of a Thousand Hills" with an intensity and speed that seemed impossible.
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With the radio calling on citizens to kill their neighbours, people grabbed what possessions they could and ran for their lives. For many it was a flight that was to last for months.
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They ran in whatever direction they hoped would take them away from the men with machetes and knives. Often, the weakest fell by the wayside.
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In Kigali, at the height of the genocide, the ICRC opened a hospital in the grounds of its delegation, for those who could get there...
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Later it was the turn of others to run, fearing reprisals; they crossed into RDC (Zaire at the time), Tanzania... a human tide on a scale barely imagineable.
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In the rush, families were separated, leaving children alone, bewildered and frightened – like this little boy of 7.
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Desperate for help,they arrived in places that were totally unprepared to look after them.
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Where it was possible, camps were built; people got shelter, food and medical care from the ICRC, the UN, and NGOs...
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As the new authorities took control, jails that had been emptied started to fill up again; the ICRC began visiting them, registering them, putting them in touch with their families, making sure they stayed alive...
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Another monumental task involved the children who had become separated from their loved ones.
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In the camps in Zaire, some 40,000 unaccompanied children were registered in 1994. Each week about a dozen were reunited with their families.
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In Tanzania the situation was similar. This little girl has just been reunited with her baby brother.
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In the aftermath, the joy was sometimes as hard to take as the sorrow... a mother (left) is reunited with her daughter and embraces the woman who has been looking after her.
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