Odette Nyiramilimo

Odette Nyiramilimo (born 1956) is a Rwandan physician and politician. She served as Minister of State for Social Affairs in the government of Paul Kagame from March 2000 to October 2003, a member of the Rwandan Senate from 2003 to 2008, and was a member of the East African Legislative Assembly for one term, from 2012 to 2017.

Early life Nyiramilimo, an ethnic Tutsi, was born in Kinunu, Gisenyi prefecture in 1956. She was the seventeenth of her father's eighteen children, born to his second wife. At a young age, her family fell victim to anti-Tutsi attacks which left her family's home burned down. Many members of her family were also killed at this time, and during similar events over the following years. In 1963, many of her uncles was killed.

Later, despite the Belgian director's insistence to not readmit Nyiramilimo, she managed to find schooling elsewhere and prepared to study medicine. This involved a different Belgian school director helping her in ways such as keeping her name outside of official records, to avoid her being targeted. She rose to be the first in her class, and later was admitted into the National University of Rwanda in Butare. In 1981, Nyiramilimo graduated as a medical doctor from that school.

Personal life Nyiramilimo later married Jean-Baptiste Gasasira. Gasasira was also a physician; he and Nyiramilimo have frequently worked together. Nyiramilimo is a Christian and has cited her faith as something that helped her survive the genocide.

She has 3 children with Gasasira. Due to Gasasira's official Hutu identification, their children were granted official Hutu status as well. However, this did not protect them from threats of violence during the genocide.

Her life story was profiled at length in Philip Gourevitch's book We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.