London’s Rwandan community marks 31 years since genocide [Video]

Thirty-one years on, the horrors Jean De Dieu Nyandwi witnessed as a young boy during the 1994 Rwandan genocide are still vividly imprinted on his mind, and will likely never go away.

It’s important that they don’t, because forgetting is dangerous, he says.

“When the genocide took place, I was 12. I saw it with my naked eyes. I remember most of everything. I was young, but I keep that memory,” he said. Sharing those memories with others, particularly the younger generation, is necessary to ensure what happened in the past doesn’t happen in the future.

“The only way to do that is to let younger people know … We always say, ‘Never again,’ but never again cannot be never again if young people forget.”

The Londoner was among more than 200 people who gathered on Saturday at Goodwill Community Hall on Horton Street to commemorate the 31st anniversary of …