‘I saw armed gang murder my family’.

From: BBC News Magazine.

Rwanda is holding a week of official mourning to mark the 20th anniversary of the country’s genocide.

On 6 April 1994, a plane carrying then-President Juvenal Habyarimana – a Hutu – was shot down, killing everyone on board. Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and immediately started a well-organised campaign of slaughter.

The RPF said the plane had been shot down by Hutus to provide an excuse for the genocide.

Between April and June, an estimated 800,000 people -mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus – died at the hands of Hutu extremists.

Liliane Umubyeyi, who is now 35 and moved to Britain in 2000, witnessed her family being slaughtered by armed Hutus and was gang-raped, but survived.

She is now a trustee of the Survivors Fund (SURF) which supports survivors of the Rwandan genocide.

This Newsnight animation tells her story.

Interview by Ryan Dilley, animation by Aslan Livingstone-Ra