Rwandan student in Hong Kong eyes hopeful future on 20th anniversary of genocide

When Rwandan student Odilon Numugabo wakes up tomorrow to the sounds of birds chirping outside his dorm room in Ma On Shan, it will be a stark contrast to the atrocities that happened 20 years ago in his home country.

Monday is the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide which saw the mass slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus by the ruling Hutu militia. At least 500,000 people - about 20 per cent of the country's population - died during 100 days of killing.

For Numugabo, tomorrow will be a reminder for his generation to ensure such carnage never occurs again. Education, the reason he is in Hong Kong, is at the heart of the solution.

"In Rwanda, we acknowledge that the genocide happened and the reasons why it did; we do this so that it will never happen again in the future," Numugabo said.

"It was something that built up from ignorance and we want people to be aware of that. That's the message the government is trying to send, and we, as the youth, are getting the message."

Numugabo moved to Hong Kong in 2012 after winning a full scholarship for the International Baccalaureate two-year diploma at Li Po Chun United World College.