While several teenagers in the village of Kibeho, Rwanda claimed to be experiencing visions of the Mother of God and Jesus Christ since 1981, it was on the 19th of August 1982 that the visionaries claimed to experience the most intense visions of rivers of blood, terrible violence and other images which some now believe was a foreshadowing of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.

Between the 6th of April and mid-July 1994, at least 800,000 Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus were killed in the Rwandan Genocide. At the school where the visions reportedly took place, dozens of children were hacked to death including some of the visionaries.

Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro, Rwanda approved public devotion linked to the apparitions of Our Lady of Kibeho on the 15th of August 1988 and declared their authenticity on 29th of June 2001.

Among the promising signs [of religious renewal in Rwanda], there is the increase in the devotion to Our Lady of Kibeho, whose apparitions have been recognized by the local Bishop, for the past four years. The central message of these apparitions was conversion while there is still time. After the genocide, this message was understood as a premonition that the Mother of the Word addressed to us, twelve years before the catastrophe. Thus, the Virgin Mary is always next to her Son who gives Himself in sacrifice for the salvation of men, His brothers.
– Bishop Frédéric Rubwejanga of Kibungo, Rwanda