Kigali, Rwanda, 31st August 2018: The African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) to the Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Rwanda visited the Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali, on Thursday 30th August 2018, to pay their respect to the victims of the 1994 Genocide.

The Memorial Center is the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It honors the memory of the more than one million Rwandans killed in 1994 through education and peace-building.

At the memorial, the AUEOM Members led by H.E Aichatou Mindaoudou Souleymane, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Niger were received by the Memorial Officials and toured the Memorial's exhibits to learn more about the history of the Genocide against the Tutsi: its causes, reality, consequences and the journey towards reconciliation and rebuilding the nation over the last 24 years.

It is worth nothing that the AU commemorating annually on the 7th of April the Rwanda Genocide. The purpose of the commemoration is to, among others, continuously awaken greater awareness of the African peoples and the international community on the value of life and humanity, the ill effects of genocide and to renew Africans’ collective commitment to protect and uphold fundamental human rights.

Following the invitation of the Rwandan National Electoral Commission, the AUEOM is deployed to observe the Rwanda's 2018 Parliamentary Elections, to be held from 2-4 September. The AUEOM is in Rwanda since 25th August 2018 and will remain in the country until 9th September 2018. It was preceded by a pre-election assessment mission which was deployed in July 2018 to assess the environment for the conduct of the September 2018 Parliamentary Elections.

The AUEOM mission is mainly to provide an accurate and impartial reporting or assessment of the quality of the Parliamentary Elections, including the degree to which the conduct of the elections meets regional, continental and international standards.

The AUEOM Secretariat is located at Serena hotel in Kigali and can be contacted through:

Mr. Guy Cyrille Tapoko, Head, Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit, Department of Political Affairs, tapokog@africa-union.org Tel: +250 789 034 625

Ms. Afrah Mohamed Thabit, Directorate of Information and Communication thabitma@africa-union.org Tel: +250 782 766 860

For further information:

Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@african-union.org I Website: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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