On this day in history: Civil war erupted in Rwanda
On 7 April 1994, Rwandan armed forces killed 10 Belgian peacekeeping officers in an effort to discourage international intervention in the genocide.
In approximately three months in 1994, Hutu extremists who controlled Rwanda brutally murdered between 500 000 to 1 million Tutsis. They also killed moderate Hutus in the worst episode of ethnic genocide since World War II.
Around the early 1990s President Juvenal Habyarimana of Hutu descent began using the anti-Tutsi rhetoric to strengthen his power amongst the Hutus. This was one of the roots to the 1994 genocide, which saw several massacres of hundreds of Tutsis.
Although the two ethnic groups were very similar, sharing the same language and culture for centuries, the law required registration based on ethnicity. The government and army began to assemble the Interahamwe (meaning “those who attack together”) and prepared for the elimination of the Tutsis by arming Hutus with guns and machetes.
In January 1994, the United Nations forces in Rwanda warned that larger massacres were imminent and they were right.
On April 6, 1994, President Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down.
Although the country still reels from the scars of the genocide, Rwanda has become a beacon of hope and progress in the African continent. Life expectancy has more than doubled, food security is at 80 percent and women represent the majority of the legislative roles.
