Rally held by survivors of 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda on Sunday [Video]

Edmontonians gathered Sunday to mark the 30-year anniversary of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.

A rally was held at Sir Winston Churchill Square to commemorate the victims of the genocide and call attention to the lasting impacts their deaths have had on the survivors.

“Most of the people you see here have almost every single family member killed,” said Jean Yves Rwibutso, president of the Memory Keepers Association. “So it’s quite emotional.”

The Memory Keepers Association is an organization made up of survivors of the genocide, many of who were young children when their families were killed.

The genocide was sparked in April 1994, after the Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down on April 6.

Habyarimana was a member of the majority Hutu ethnic group, and his death was blamed on the minority Tutsis.

An estimated 800,000 Tutsi were killed by extremist Hutus over the three months that followed.

The conflict has left lasting marks on the nation, as mass graves continue to …