Kibeho - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Kibeho is a small town in south Rwanda

Rwanda

Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

, which became known outside of that country because of reported apparitions

Marian apparitions

A Marian apparition is an event in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed to have supernaturally appeared to one or more people. They are often given names based on the town in which they were reported, or on the sobriquet which was given to Mary on the occasion of the apparition...

of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ occurring between 1981 and 1989.

Visions

The Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ reportedly appeared to some teenagers in Kibeho in 1981, as Our Lady of Kibeho

Our Lady of Kibeho

Our Lady of Kibeho is a title of Marian apparitions which appeared to several adolescents, in the 1980s in Kibeho, in south-western Rwanda. The apparitions communicated various messages to the schoolchildren, including an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda descending into violence and hatred, foretelling...

. These visions were accompanied by intense reactions: crying, tremors, and comas.
On August 19, 1982, those who saw the visions reported gruesome sights (rivers of blood, sliced heads, etc.) which some today regard as an ominous foreshadowing of the Rwandan Genocide

Rwandan Genocide

The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...

of 1994, and particularly in that specific location in 1995.

Catholic Bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

Augustin Misago of Gikongoro, Rwanda approved public devotion linked to the apparitions on 15th August 1988 and declared their authenticity on 29th June 2001.

Kibeho Massacre

After the 1994 genocide, Kibeho was the site of an internally displaced person

Internally displaced person

An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the current legal definition of a refugee. At the end of 2006 it was estimated there were...

(IDP) refugee camp, with many of the Hutu

Hutu

The Hutu , or Abahutu, are a Central African people, living mainly in Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern DR Congo.-Population statistics:The Hutu are the largest of the three peoples in Burundi and Rwanda; according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency, 84% of Rwandans and 85% of Burundians...

refugees suspected of having participated in the genocide. The camp was the largest in Rwanda

Rwanda

, spreading 9 square kilometers and containing between 80,000 and 100,000 people. In mid - April 1995, elements of the Tutsi

Tutsi

The Tutsi , or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group in Central Africa. Historically they were often referred to as the Watussi or Watusi. They are the second largest caste in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa ....

- led Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), announced they would close the camp, with the aim of forcibly separating known Génocidaires

Genocidaires

Genocidaires, from the French for ‘those who commit genocide’, refers to those guilty of the mass killings of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, in which close to 1,000,000, primarily Tutsi Rwandans, were murdered by their Hutu neighbors...

from those who would be sent home. As the camp was closed, tensions mounted and RPA troops opened fire on some of the remaining refugees. Australian and Zambian troops of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda

United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda

The United Nations Assistance Mission In Rwanda was a mission instituted by the United Nations to aid the implementation of the Arusha Accords, signed August 4, 1993, which were meant to end the Rwandan Civil War. The mission lasted from October 1993 to March 1996...

(UNAMIR) and staff from International Aid Agencies witnessed the massacre.

Many of these were killed in the same school in which the apparitions had occurred; one of the children who reported the vision was even one of the victims. The local bishop, accused by many of complicity in the genocide himself, recognized officially on June 29 2001 three cases as authentic. The church Notre-Dame des Douleurs (Our Lady of Sorrows) was built in Kibeho, supported by Pallottines

Pallottines

The Society of the Catholic Apostolate , better known as the Pallottines, are a Society of Apostolic Life within the Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1835 by the Roman priest Saint Vincent Pallotti. Pallottines are part of the Union of Catholic Apostolate and are present in 45 countries on six...

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