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Rwanda

Rwanda

How Rich Western Countries Pay To Send Refugees Away

Western countries are shipping refugees to poorer nations in exchange for cash.

The UK government was due to begin its first deportation flight to remove asylum-seekers to the East African country of Rwanda on June 14, 2022, exactly two months after signing the UK-Rwanda agreement. The asylum-seekers were from several war-torn and politically unstable countries, including Syria, Sudan and Iran.

Each year, thousands of people – many fleeing repressive governments or poverty – attempt to cross the English Channel in fragile boats in the hope of starting a new life in the UK.

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Rwandan And Congolese Youth United Against Stereotypes Of Genocide

Though peace is far secure between the Democratic Republic Of Congo and Rwanda, organized efforts to bring their youth together are multiplying.

GOMA — "The wound will not heal as long as the knife keeps twisting," reads a profession of faith by four young Congolese and Rwandan artists trying to shatter stereotypes between the two neighboring peoples of the Great Lakes region.

Through their group, Simama Africa, they mobilized some 30 young people from both countries for a day of reflection last month at the Protestant Welcome Center in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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African Startup Hub, Rwanda Attracts Ubers And Universities

KIGALI — About a 20-minute drive from the Rwandan capital of Kigali, there's a barren road that leads to a construction site amid cornfields and banana trees. A single blue sign from the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation indicates the entrance to the location, which stands at the top of a hill. There, across a stretch of red earth, a hundred workers finish constructing the first building of the "Kigali Innovation City".

By mid-2017, the site is slated be home to a offshoot of Carnegie Mellon University, the first African campus for the American higher education institution.

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Rwanda
Pierre Lepidi

The Poop On How Rwanda Turned Prison Feces Into Energy

Overrun with prisoners sentenced for their roles in the country's 1994 genocide, Rwanda had to find a way to deal with its massive prison waste and reduce energy costs. It managed both with a biogas system.

RWAMAGANA — They're sitting on the floor in close ranks, facing the door. There's about a hundred of them. In their orange uniforms, most of them barefooted, the convicts are waiting under a scorching sun, waiting to be counted and re-counted before entering Rwamagana's penitentiary, the biggest prison in Rwanda.

Among the 8,597 prisoners crammed inside its high walls, more than half are still being imprisoned for crimes they committed during the genocide that killed more than 800,000 people, most of them Tutsi, between April and July 1994. During the commemorations that will officially end on July 4 but also on billboards and on television, the word kwibua, or "remember," is everywhere.

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Rwanda
Philippe Bernard

France's Moral Obligation To Open Its Archives On Rwanda

-OpEd-

PARIS — From Vichy France to the Algerian War, the demand that France “open the archives” resonates every time the country struggles with one of its “pasts that don’t pass.” Twenty years after the Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi people, researchers are once again singing this refrain, especially in light of the provocative declarations from Rwandan President Paul Kagame accusing France of involvement in the tragedy.

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Rwanda
Fanny Kaneza

Sons Of Rwanda Genocide Rapes Hunt Down Their Fathers

KIGALI — The shocking thought is said out loud, and repeated. "I can only be relieved when I kill my father." The 19-year-old who calls himself DG seethes with rage when talking about his father. "He's a coward, a torturer who doesn't deserve anything but death," he insists.

The truth about his conception, birth and upbringing have scarred this young man in the deepest of ways. During the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, DG's mother was only 17. Members of the government-backed militia Interahamwe slaughtered most of her family. One of them however "protected" her and took her with him. From the very first night, he raped her. And thus began months of violence and misery.

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Rwanda
Sothène Musonera

Rwanda's Tough Stance On Plastic Bags

KIGALI — In the courtyard of the Ecoplastic factory in the Rwandan capital, a group of men and women are hanging plastic bags on a line with clothes pins, like they would do to dry a load of wash.

“People pick them here and there and bring them to us. We buy them and process them to turn them into another product,” explains Wenceslas Habamungu, an employee of the company.

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Rwanda
Fulgence Niyonagize

20 Years After Rwandan Genocide, Lighting A Flame Of Hope

KIGALI — As the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide approaches, a “flame of hope” is being carried across the entire country, a symbol of reconciliation and faith in a better future.

“I want to make sure that everything's in order,” says the president of the Tutsi genocide survivors group in northern Rwanda. “The flame of hope will arrive in our district tomorrow.”

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Rwanda
Alphonse Safari Byuma

"Medical Tourism," African-Style

Every since a private insurance system was launched in Rwanda, its citizens regularly cross the Burundi border to get better, cheaper care.

GAHARA – Nsengimana, a fiftysomething merchant from this town in eastern Rwanda, is ranting against his country's medical services. "Old Gerard died in May in the courtyard of Gahara's health center. The nurses refused to take care of him because he hadn't paid the health insurance fees for all of his family members," Nsengimana says.

As the anger rises in his voice, Nsengimana says that in Rwanda someone can be denied treatment even if just one family member has not paid for their health insurance card.

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Rwanda
R.Akalikumutima, E. Safi and M. Umukunzi

For Rwanda's Poor, Working And Weddings Arrive Far Too Early

Whole families are forced to leave Rwanda's struggling north. Boys look for work at an early age; the girls, instead, all too often are pushed to get married across the border in Uganda.

REMERA - The citizens in this northern region of Rwanda have too many children and not enough arable land.

Small children eat sweet potatoes amid houses in Remera that are cramped together. Their parents work the fields during the morning hours, while afternoons for the adults are often spent in the cafes for men, and outside chatting in groups for the women.

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Rwanda
Alphonse Safari Byuma

In Rwanda, Circumcision Is All The Rage

The procedure is gaining popularity amongst young men who believe, erroneously, that it eliminates any risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

BUGESERA - In Rwanda, circumcision has become trendy.

More and more young men have begun to have the procedure performed to limit the risks of HIV infection. The Ministry of Health launched its free male circumcision program in 2011, with a goal of medically circumcising 50% of men in two years as part of its HIV/AIDS prevention program.

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