Kibimba School Memorial

Public Art : Kibimba School Memorial

Architect : Unknown

Description : A circular concrete structure painted in white, marking the location where 100 Tutsi students and their teachers were burned alive on the 21st october 1993. On the memorial are the words  "plus jamais ca!" (this, never again!).

Location : Kibimba , Gitega province, Burundi

Background: The Kibimba School Memorial was built in remembrance of the 100 Tutsi students , teachers and locals who were rounded up from a nearby secondary school by machete wielding Hutu civilians and placed in a gas station where they were soaked in palm oil and burned alive. The cold bloodied murders (some say genocide) were a response to the assassination of Hutu president Melchior Ndadaye by the Tutsi dominated army only hours earlier. Gilbert Tuhabonye was the sole survivor of the school massacre. He managed to use the charred bone of a schoolmate to break a window and run to freedom.

Lest We Forget