Dying to Live

Pierre-Claver Ndacyayisenga was teaching history in Kigali, Rwanda, when he was forced to flee to the neighboring Congo with his wife and three children. Thus began a harrowing five-year voyage of survival during which they travelled thousands of miles on foot from one refugee camp to another. Lacking food and water, they were often robbed, sometimes raped, and constantly pursued and bombed by shadowy armed soldiers with sophisticated weapons and aerial surveillance information. This brilliant and touching book is the story of one family among the more than 300,000 refugees—many of whom did not survive. For those wishing to understand the war in the Congo, this must-read will restore the humanity and the right to mourn for hundreds of thousands of Rwandans dispersed throughout the world.