The burgomaster gives the order to take all the survivors to the office of the commune of Kamembe, claiming that they will be safe there. All the boys are killed along the way. Despite all of this, Abbot Baudouin continues clandestinely to bring them food and blankets to resist the cold nights. He looks for new clothes for a woman, who had all her clothes taken away by the militia. Because he can’t find any, he brings her the cloth covering the altar of the chapel.
Considering that the lives of the refugees are in danger, the Abbot decides to organise their escape at night. He collaborates with the piroguiers on lake Kivu that he pays, often with his own money, to negotiate their crossing to Zaïre. He starts with refugees whose lives are the most in danger. He does everything by foot: brings food, kitchen utensils and blankets, organises the escape of the survivors, accompanies them and guides them to Bukavu.
Abbot Baudouin also helps some Tutsi who have taken shelter in the Kamarampaka stadium, a few tens of kilometres from Nkanka parish, to flee to Bukavu, collaborating with Abbot Oscar Nkundayezu from the Cyangugu cathedral. The latter is a Hutu priest protecting the refugees of the stadium. Félicien Bahizi, a seminarian, also of Hutu origin, helps him. They manage to get the people out of the stadium by bribing the militia and the security forces. They hide them in the Cyangugu cathedral, only a few meters away. Abbot Oscar then calls Abbot Baudouin. He then walks to the Nkanka parish (approximately 2 hours) to get those refugees to cross, at very late hours, with the help of the Congolese boatmen that he bribed. To ensure that they arrive at their destination, he often accompanies them to Bukavu.
During those safety missions, Abbot Baudouin takes enormous risks. One day, returning from the lake, the Interahamwe grab him and hit him violently, accusing him of helping the Tutsi. He denies everything and says that he came back from Bukavu after having greeted his aunt. The militia doesn’t believe him and they continue to beat him up. He then gives them money to save his life. However, this will not discourage him: the Abbot will continue to help the refugees to escape till the end of the genocide, in July 1994 when he finally flees to Zaïre. First welcomed by Zairian priests, he will then live with Rwandan Hutu refugees, in the camp of Kashusha, in South Kivu, roughly thirty kilometres north from Bukavu
In November 1996, while Abbot Baudouin is celebrating Mass with another Rwandan priest, the camp of Kashusha is attacked, with heavy weaponry, by the Rwandan troops of the RPF and the Congolese of the AFDL (Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo) of Laurent Désiré Kabila. Several refugees are immediately killed. The Abbot escapes with some Christians, following the advancing crowd of Hutu refugees. Arriving in Shanji (South Kivu) beginning of 1997, they are attacked by members of the local community of the Babembe. They think that the Rwandan Hutu refugees have money. During this attack, Abbot Baudouin is mortally wounded with a knife. Devoid of any medical help, he succumbs to his injuries.
During the annual commemorations of the genocide committed against the Tutsi of Rwanda, the survivors of Nkanka mention continuously the exceptional courage of Abbot Baudouin Busunyu. They remind us of how much he risked his life to save theirs, acting against his parish priest and his father. They keep in mind a man of great piety, and with a sense of Christian duty. They highlight that his acts distinguish him from his father’s, Michel Busunyu, sentenced to life imprisonment for his participation in the genocide.