On June 17, 2026, Rwanda and Ghana unveiled a memorial in Accra honouring victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and Ghanaian peacekeepers who stayed in Rwanda when others left.
More than one million people were murdered in 100 days.
Coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944 and defined in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, genocide is intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
Genocide is a crime distinguished by specific intent to eliminate people because of who they are, not as a byproduct of war, but a deliberate act of destruction.
Serving under the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), peacekeepers could not stop the genocide but saved countless lives.
The Ghanaian contingent was led by General Henry Kwami Anyidoho, Deputy Force Commander of UNAMIR. Other senior officers were then Colonel Clayton Yaache, sector commander of the Demilitarised Zone and later Head of the Humanitarian Assistance Cell, and then Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Adinkrah, Commanding Officer, Ghanaian Battalion.
UN Forces
When UN forces were directed to leave, UN Force Commander General Roméo Dallaire recalls telling his deputy General Anyidoho, “We have been asked to leave Rwanda. We have failed.”
General Anyidoho replied: “We have not failed. Ghanaians will stay.
We will not leave the people of Rwanda.”
When this decision was shared, Senegalese and Tunisian peacekeepers chose to remain.
The term “Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda” is grounded in legal findings, not opinion.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) established that the Tutsi were targeted for destruction, while moderate Hutu were killed for opposing it.
In 2018, the UN General Assembly formally adopted the designation and established an annual day of reflection.
Before colonial rule, Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa identities were fluid social categories sharing culture, including language, territory, religion and customs.
Belgian colonial policies in the 1930s hardened these identities through mandatory identity cards and divide-and-rule policies with “race” as the basis of governance.
Between 1959 and Rwanda’s independence in 1962, thousands of Tutsi were killed and forced into exile.
Further Tutsi massacres followed in 1963 and 1964, while successive governments institutionalised discrimination through ethnic quotas in education and employment.
The Hamitic Hypothesis portrayed Tutsi as outsiders, reinforcing extremist ideology known as “Hutu Power.”
Propaganda dehumanised Tutsi as inyenzi (“cockroaches”). In the 1980s and 1990s, militias were armed, trained, and lists of targeted Tutsi victims were compiled.
The groundwork for genocide was ready.
In January 1994, General Dallaire warned of plans for the large-scale extermination of the Tutsi people.
The warnings were not acted upon.
The UN would later acknowledge this failure.
After the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994, genocide against the Tutsi and killing of moderate Hutu began.
Roadblocks appeared within hours.
Identity cards identifying people as Hutu, Tutsi or Twa determined life or death.
Perpetrators killed using weapons distributed in advance.
Churches, schools, and hospitals became killing sites.
Some victims were forced to choose between slow death by machete or pay for a fast death by bullet.
Intent
The scale, coordination, and intent showed the Genocide was not a spontaneous outbreak, but the result of ideological planning and meticulous preparation.
Many mischaracterised it as a collapse of the 1993 Arusha Accords rather than the extermination of the Tutsi.
Representatives of the genocidal government portrayed the genocide as a civil war.
After the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, many perpetrators fled to the DRC, reorganising under the FDLR armed group, attacking Rwanda and Congolese Tutsi communities.
Continuation of genocidal ideology contributed to insecurity and the emergence of the Congolese Tutsi-led M23 as a self-defence force.
Notably, the M-23 did not exist before the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
Today, more than 120-armed militias operate in Eastern DRC.
Genocide
The Genocide against the Tutsi is widely documented.
ICTR convictions included the 1998 Akayesu judgement, the world’s first conviction for genocide by an international tribunal.
Former mayors, medical doctors, Catholic priests and nuns were convicted in France, Belgium, Germany, Norway, and The Netherlands for participating in the genocide.
Regrettably, some indicted individuals remain at large.
Denial has evolved from rejection to minimisation and reinterpretation, acknowledging genocide against the Tutsi while distorting through false equivalence and diluted responsibility.
Holocaust and Srebrenica genocide denial have similar patterns, undermining accountability. As Gregory Stanton observed, denial is the final stage of genocide.
In June 2026, France and Rwanda inaugurated The Archive in Paris, a memorial to victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi.
A few weeks earlier, Félicien Kabuga, alleged financier of the genocide and founder of RTLM hate media, arrested in France after 26 years of hiding, died in custody in The Hague.
Allegations against him included the importation of approximately 500,000 machetes used during the genocide.
Ghana and Rwanda can build educational initiatives on the prevention of genocide together.
Recognition of warning signs such as hate speech, dehumanisation, propaganda, and political manipulation can be taught.
Digital literacy can identify misinformation, disinformation and denial, often spreading rapidly without evidence, context or accountability.
Firsthand testimony from peacekeepers as upstanders who witnessed genocide against the Tutsi remains vital.
Their accounts challenge revisionist narratives.
For instance, the Humanitarian Assistance Cell oversaw the evacuation of civilians from Hôtel des Mille Collines at great risk to themselves, contrasting with the narrative popularised by the movie Hotel Rwanda and Paul Rusesabagina.
Preserving these accounts is essential to historical accuracy, as films can shape and distort global memory.
Peacekeepers’ testimonies should be recorded, digitised, and preserved through the National Peacekeepers History Archives.
Future generations must know Africa has heroes in peacekeepers who stayed when others left.
ICTR judicial records should be digitised and made widely accessible, with institutions and tech platforms bringing verified legal findings into public understanding.
Genocide against the Tutsi shows genocide does not end when killing stops.
Its legacy lives on in the struggle for memory, truth, and justice.
Ghanaian peacekeepers fulfilled their duty in Rwanda; ours is to ensure their courage and testimony are never forgotten.
The writer is the immediate former UN Under-Secretary General and Special Adviser - Prevention of Genocide
