Prince Charles and Camilla honor genocide victims during first royal visit to Rwanda

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall are in Rwanda, marking the first British royal visit to the East African country.

On Tuesday, the royal couple landed in Rwanda, where Prince Charles will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Prince Charles has previously attended five of the 24 meetings held since 1971: Edinburgh in 1997, Uganda in 2007, Sri Lanka in 2013, Malta in 2015 and the UK in 2018.

Commonwealth leaders gather every two years for the meeting, which is hosted by another member country on a rotating basis. This meeting comes after the event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

LAW: Prince Charles’ ‘future role as king’ was ‘visible’ during platinum jubilee, royal historian says

Ian Vogler-Pool/Getty Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

On Wednesday, Prince Charles and Camilla visited the Genocide Memorial in Kigali, where they learned more about the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a period of about 100 days, hundreds of thousands of members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group were killed by armed militias.

SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

The memorial, one of six national memorial sites commemorating the Rwandan Genocide, is based around a former church and is the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims.

The center was officially opened in 2004 to mark the tenth commemoration of the Genocide.

Chris Jackson – Pool/Getty Prince Charles

Prince Charles, 73, was shown the skulls of the victims, as well as their clothes and other belongings. Camilla, 74, also saw photographs of the victims.

The couple met with survivors from the Village of Hope, a community that works to lift people out of extreme poverty, to hear their stories. They also attended a wreath-laying ceremony and paused for a moment of reflection at the Wall of Names.

SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty Camilla and Prince Charles

Also on Wednesday, Prince Charles and Camilla met with Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, and his wife, Jeannette Kagame.

During the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, Queen Elizabeth formally requested that Prince Charles be named as her successor to the association of Great Britain and its former colonies.

Ian Vogler – Pool/Getty Jeannette Kagame, Prince Charles, President and Camilla

“It is my sincere wish that the Commonwealth will continue to provide stability and continuity for future generations and that the Prince of Wales may one day continue the important work started by my father in 1949,” said the Queen, now aged 96 years old. .

“By continuing to value and revitalize our associations and activities, I believe we will ensure a safer, more prosperous and more sustainable world for those who follow us: a world where the generosity of the Commonwealth spirit can bring the gentle touch of healing and hope to all . “, she continued.