Antonia Locatelli

Who was Antonia Locatelli?

Antonia Locatelli was an Italian volunteer who had lived in Rwanda since 1972. In 1992 she witnessed massacres of the Tutsis taking place in the Bugesera region, South of Kigali, soon after a radio broadcast had incited manhunting during the Rwandan genocide. In an attempt to save 300 to 400 Tutsis, she phoned up the Belgian embassy, RF1 Radio and the BBC. She was murdered the day afterwards by a group of presidential guards who had arrived from Kigali specifically for the purpose. She nonetheless had managed to inform the world of the genocide taking place.