WASHINGTON (CNS) – At the end of a process that has taken her 15 years to complete, world-renowned Rwandan genocide survivor and peace advocate Immaculee Ilibagiza became an American citizen on April 17.

An estimated 800,000 people – including most members of her family – were brutally murdered during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In the early stages of the conflict, Ilibagiza was sent to hide with a member of another tribe at the behest of her father.

A Catholic, the then-college student endured 91 days hiding in a bathroom from the “killers” who were looking for her. She recorded her ordeal in her book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.