At about 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 10, I was having lunch at Amikus in Musanze when I heard police sirens. At first, I paid little attention. I assumed an official motorcade was passing through.
Then the restaurant emptied. As I went to find the waitress and pay my bill, I saw black smoke rising. I asked someone nearby what had happened. “GOICO Market is on fire,” they told me.
I began trembling. “I thought the whole town might catch fire,” I remember thinking. I called my boss to tell him about the disaster.
He tried to reassure me, saying roads surrounded GOICO Plaza and separated it from nearby buildings.
When I reached the scene, traders were crying as firefighters worked to bring the blaze under control. The fire was burning in the central part of the building, where goods including plastic items, mattresses and boda-boda shoes were stored.
The flames would subside, then flare up again a short time later.
Some traders tried to get back into the market to salvage their merchandise and protect the capital tied up in their businesses. Police officers kept people away from the danger zone.
“If the police had not held people back, many could have died,” I thought. I did not see anyone die, but I saw traders grieving as they watched their livelihoods burn.
The wait for water to be replenished heightened people’s frustration. When a fire engine ran out of water, they said, they sometimes had to wait several minutes for another to arrive.
Some questioned why helicopters had not been deployed and compared the response with efforts to put out fires in Burundi and on Mount Muhabura. I saw about six fire engines.
Others spoke of a prophet who had reportedly predicted the fire the day before; some wondered whether it was punishment for working on the Sabbath or for their sins.
Smoke affected people nearby. Some people, particularly those with allergies, developed coughs and breathing discomfort. We hoped heavy rain would help extinguish the fire, but it did not come.
The scale of the loss became clearer afterward. Northern Province Governor Maurice Mugabowagahunde said preliminary estimates put the value of merchandise damaged at more than Rwf30 billion, while the building itself was valued at Rwf17 billion.
More than 2,000 traders worked at the market, which reportedly received about 12,000 visitors a day.
Officials reported no fatalities, two people with minor injuries and 15 who received medical attention for psychological shock.
The government pledged support for repairs, and more than 600 temporary trading spaces were secured for displaced traders.
The fire left me thinking about how vulnerable small traders can be. Businesses need insurance and accessible fire extinguishers, while emergency services need adequate equipment and reliable water supplies.
I hope legally operating traders receive support, especially those whose businesses were their families’ only source of income.
To those whose businesses survived, congratulations. To those who lost theirs, keep going. “At least they did not die. Life still goes on. No loss, no gain.”
Sybelle Mbabazi is a law student at the University of Kigali in Musanze campus.
