Rwanda liberation day (#kwibohora28)

Twenty-eight years ago today, the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) took Mont Kigali, the last major bastion of the genocidal forces in Kigali, effectively liberating the capital.According to the official archives of the liberation war and campaign to stop the Genocide against the Tutsi, Paul Kagame’s Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) attacked Mont (Mount) Kigali from different directions at around 6a.m on July 4, 1994, dislodging FAR from the hugely strategic terrain around 10a.m the same day.The capital fell three months after then Chairman of High Command of RPA Maj Gen Kagame ordered his 600-strong forces at the former CND (Parliamentary Buildings) in Kigali to break out of their positions and all the other RPA troops to advance and engage the enemy on three-pronged axes.

When the RPA forces advanced from their positions from the north of the country they took three directions, the main being the Central Axis (from Byumba-Kigali). Kagame had identified Kigali as the centre of gravity for the genocidal forces (FAR), explaining why he committed more troops and logistics to this axis.Aside from the ‘600’ troops that were already in Kigali under a peace deal that effectively collapsed when the Genocide started, five Combined Mobile Forces (CMFs) advanced toward the capital as the RPA launched the campaign against the Genocide. The five CMFs were led by Sam ‘Kaka’ Kanyemera (Alpha), Dodo Twahirwa (Bravo), Charles Ngoga (59), Charles Musitu (21) and Charles Muhire (101).The two subsidiary axes included the Southeastern Axis (Nyagatare-Gatsibo-Kayonza, from where the forces split into two groups, with the Wilson Bagire’s 7 CMF also heading to Kigali through Rwamagana, and Fred Ibingira’s 157 CMF advancing further southwest through Kibungo-Rusomo-Nemba-Gako-Rwabusoro-Gitarama-Nyanza-Butare).