Murder of Ten Peacekeepers: On April 7, 1994, the day after the Rwandan President's plane was shot down, Hutu government soldiers brutally murdered the moderate Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and the ten Belgian peacekeepers assigned to protect her. The soldiers were captured, disarmed, and killed at the Kigali military camp; the site is now a memorial.

When the peacekeepers reached her residence, the home was surrounded by elements of the presidential guard and other Rwandan soldiers. The Hutu extremist forces accused the Belgians of being responsible for the president’s plane being shot down; there was growing anti-Belgian sentiment. The Rwandan soldiers disarmed the peacekeepers, arrested them, and transported them to a military camp in Kigali, Camp Kigali.   

Inside Camp Kigali, the ten Belgian soldiers were tortured and killed. The five Ghanaian peacekeepers were released, but the Belgian contingent was not spared. Some Belgian soldiers were killed immediately; others resisted, barricading themselves in a building and fighting back for several hours, but were eventually overwhelmed. 

They were massacred, reportedly with grenades, gunfire, and machetes. Their deaths happened on 7 April 1994, just hours after the murder of the president, marking the first major attack on UN peacekeepers during the unfolding genocide. Meanwhile, the attempt to get Prime Minister Uwilingiyimana to the radio station failed: the Presidential Guard had already seized the station by morning. She and her husband were later found, arrested, and executed as part of the wave targeting moderate politicians. 

The Belgian Peacekeepers Memorial stands on the site where Camp Kigali once stood, marking where those ten soldiers made their last stand. The memorial features ten stone pillars (one per soldier), often engraved with their names and marks representing the number of bullets or wound, a sober tribute to their sacrifice.  

The walls of the old camp, still bearing visible bullet holes are preserved, so visitors can see evidence of the final, desperate battle as the UN soldiers tried to defend themselves. Their killing triggered a drastic weakening and eventual withdrawal of UN presence, leaving Rwanda dangerously exposed. Many historians and human rights advocates see the massacre as a turning point, signaling international inaction that enabled the genocide to rapidly spread.