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History, Rwanda

Maciej Mońka

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In 1990, the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front invaded Rwanda from their base in Uganda. The military government of Juvenal Habyarimana responded with genocidal pogroms against Tutsis, who it claimed were trying to re-enslave the Hutus. Fighting continued until 1992, when the government and the RPF signed a cease-fire agreement in Arusha, Tanzania. On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying President Habyarimana was shot down in Kigali. Over the next two months, the military and militia groups killed over 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates. The RPF launched another invasion, and captured the northern part of the country by July. French peacekeepers secured the southern part, and the war ended on July 16. Over 2 million Hutus fled the country after the war, fearing Tutsi retribution. Most have since returned, although some militias remain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and have become involved in that country's civil war.