Rwandan genocide

The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 in Rwanda during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu militias.

After the end of 1994, estimations on the number of deaths range between 500,000 and 2,000,000, broadly falling in two distinct categories (approx. 500,000 and approx. 2,000,000) depending on the methodology used. The Rwandan government estimates, based on a nationwide census, reported by the Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs (MINALOC) that the official number of the Rwandan dead stood at 1,074,107, of whom, it claimed, 998,835 were Tutsi. This one million number is also included in the constitution. This is somewhat called into question by some scholars, instead opting for a figure between 500,000-600,000 Tutsi, 64,000-408,000 Hutus and 10,000 Twa.

In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda from their base in Uganda in an attempt to overthrow the Hutu-dominated government, initiating the Rwandan Civil War. The Rwandan government led by Hutu president, Juvénal Habyarimana signed the Arusha Accords with the RPF on 4 August 1993. The catalyst for the genocide became Habyarimana's assassination on 6 April 1994, ending the peace accords. Genocidal killings began the following day when majority Hutu soldiers, police, and militia murdered key Tutsi and moderate Hutu military and political leaders.

The RPF quickly resumed the civil war once the genocide started and captured all government territory, ending the genocide and forcing the government and génocidaires into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) on the 15 July 1994.