Eraste and Rose Nyrimana

Through the Genocide

As the world disintegrated around them, Eraste and Rose struggled with being apart from their children. Yet, that separation likely saved their lives.

Eraste and Rose Nyirimana are a wonderful example of a gifted husband and wife. He is an Old Testament scholar and her focus is in the New Testament. Together, they have served on the faculty at West African Theological Seminary and raised five children. They possess a deep faith and a certainty of God's provision; difficult lessons learned through the atrocities of the genocide in their native country of Rwanda.

Eraste is Hutu. Rose is Tutsi. Those ethnic identities nearly cost them their lives and their family in 1994. The images of machetes and mass graves have been seared into the minds of the world. As the events of that April unfolded, Eraste and Rose embarked on a dramatic odyssey of God's protection and provision that not only miraculously saved their family, but has given them a lifelong passion and calling to help bring reconciliation to their wounded land.

In the country of Rwanda, most of the inhabitants were classified on their identity cards as either Hutu or Tutsi, labels which have had a long history in the country related to status and power. Since the 1960's the Hutus had held power in the government. In the early 1990's rebel Tutsi factions, mostly located outside the country began to make a push for power. As the tension of civil war increased, so did the ethnic divide. On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying the president of Rwanda was shot down as it prepared to land in the capitol city of Kilgali. This incident sparked the violence as Hutu militia men began the organized elimination of any Tutsi – man, woman or child – living in the country. Those who opposed the killing or sheltered Tutsis were also killed. In the midst of the fighting, Tutsi rebels made a push to take over Kilgali. They succeeded in July 1994, overthrowing the Hutu government and ending the genocide. In the 100 days that had elapsed, estimates put the total death toll at nearly 1 million people, many massacred by friends and neighbors, often by machete.

In 1994, Eraste worked for Compassion International and Rose participated in a ministry teaching deaf children. As April rolled around, Eraste was asked to take a shipment of medication to one part of the country. Rose was attending a conference for ministries working with the deaf in another part of the country. Their seven children, all under the age of 12, remained with their maid at their home near Kilgali, the capital of Rwanda. On April 7, Rose received a frantic phone call from Eraste telling her not to leave the hotel where she was staying for the conference and wanting to know if she had gone shopping for the week so that the kids would have food. Rose had not yet heard the news and had no idea that Hutu mobs had begun executing Tutsis throughout the country. Despite a travel ban, Eraste made his way to Rose. After a week they were able to leave the hotel and make their way to Eraste's the village where Eraste was raised, wherethey hid Rose in Eraste's sister's home. Over the next month, that house would become a prayer center. Every day, a mixed group of Hutus and Tutsis gathered to pray for peace and protection in their troubled land.

Meanwhile, back in the capital, Hutu militia came by the house several times looking for Rose. The children were safe because of Eraste's ethnicity, but clearly they knew that Rose was Tutsi and were determined to kill her. While they were away, Rose and Eraste were able to get several updates from a friend who was traveling between the capital and his own village in the country. He promised that after he had moved his own family, he would return to Kilgali and take the Nyirimana children to his village. However, before he could return, the militia men attacked his village, and he and his entire family perished. Had the children been with him, they too would have died.

As the killing raged on, the Tutsi rebels also made a push into the country, drawing ever nearer the capital Kilgali. The Nyirimana's house girl realized that their safety would soon be jeopardized and the wisest thing would be to get the children out of the city. One day, an opportunity arose when a truck parked outside the family compound. Knowing this was their chance, she piled all seven into the back of the vehicle. She did not know where the truck was going, only that it was moving away from the fighting. When the truck finally stopped, they exited in a village hours away from the capital.

Shortly after the family abandoned the house, the home became part of the fighting between the army and the rebels. The army used it as a headquarters until the rebels eventually blew the roof off with rocket grenades. Even if they had been able to return, the Nyirimana home was now destroyed.

The kids and the maid did not realize it at the time, but they had come to the very same village where Rose and Eraste were staying. Few people left their homes, including Eraste and Rose. Fear dominated life there, especially for Rose. Even though she was not known as a Tutsi in the town, they did not like to take chances. One day, a cousin came running into Erastse's sister's home with amazing news – the children were not only alive, they were staying on the other side of town. After more than a month apart, the Nyirimana family was miraculously reunited.

Though the family was together once again, they were not safe. The fighting was coming to the countryside, and Eraste and Rose knew that they would soon have to leave.  One day they packed up the seven young children and became refugees. The family began walking, hoping that they would eventually make it to Congo and escape the danger that could now come from either the Hutu militia or the Tutsi rebels. After four days of walking, Eraste was able to secure a vehicle with the help of some friends at Compassion International. They eventually made their way into the Congo jungle, where they hid, realizing that they might not ever be able to return to their home country.  

Looking back on those weeks and months in 1994, Eraste and Rose see God's protection and provision in so many ways. As the world disintegrated around them, Eraste and Rose struggled with being apart from their children. Yet, that separation likely saved their lives. Had Rose been at their home in Kilgali, the Hutu militia probably would have killed her and possibly the children. Had Erase been home and tried to protect them, he would have also perished. Had their friend taken the children to his home village on the first trip, they would have died. Had the maid not evacuated their house when they did, they would have been caught in the middle of the crossfire. The Lord had not only protected them, but also reunited them in the midst of the chaos.

After months in the bush, Eraste and Rose settled into a life in Congo. They started a business and began to explore ministry options.  However, the war in Rwanda soon came to Congo. Eraste recounts a dramatic story of a dream in which he was convinced they should move. Through a series of circumstances, God confirmed this for them and they left Congo a month before ethnic fighting erupted in the area where they had been.

God opened a door for further studies and eventually, Rose, Eraste, and the children were all able to move to Nairobi where they completed their degrees at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. They later left Kenya to join the faculty of West African Theological Seminary (WATS) in Lagos, Nigeria. WATS has now sent both Rose and Eraste to earn their doctorates at the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.  Both have focused their studies on reconciliation. Eraste's work in Old Testament explores the idea of ethnicity in God's people. Rose's work looks at the role of women as peacemakers. The ethnic divide remains in Rwanda in a very deep way. In fact, Eraste has not been back to his country in years, because as a Hutu he still has some fear of reprisal.

When they complete their PhD's in South Africa, Rose and Eraste will return to their teaching posts in Nigeria's largest seminary, equipping a generation of pastors and church leaders from across Africa. However, they hope to one day return to Rwanda where they can continue to offer their leadership to the church as it helps the nation heal from the inconceivably deep wound left by the genocide.