USHERS carry a screaming and emotionally distraught woman out of Amahoro Stadium during the 20th anniversary commemoration of the 1994 genocide in Kigali, Rwanda, yesterday.

Thousands of Rwandans and global leaders past and present joined together at the stadium to remember the country's 1994 genocide, when more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutus were slaughtered over a 100-day period.

France, an ally of the Rwandan government that ruled before the genocide, did not take part after rebel-turned-president Paul Kagame renewed charges of Paris' "direct role" in the killings.

Some in the crowd were overcome with emotion on hearing a survivor's account.

Picture: Getty Images