Rwandan genocide

"Tutsi Genocide" redirects here. For the killings of Tutsi in Burundi, see 1993 ethnic violence in Burundi. For the 1963/1964 killings, see Rwandan Revolution.

Rwandan genocide
Part of the Rwandan Civil War
Human skulls at the Nyamata Genocide Memorial Centre
LocationRwanda
Date7 April – 19 July 1994
TargetTutsi, moderate Hutu, Twa
Attack type
Genocide, mass murder, genocidal rape, ethnic cleansing
DeathsEstimated: 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsis[1] &
10,000 Twa[2]
Victims250,000 to 500,000 Tutsi women raped during the genocide.[3]
Perpetrators
MotiveAnti-Tutsi sentiment, Hutu Power
External videos
video icon Coming To Terms With The Rwandan Genocide (2003), Journeyman Pictures
Human skulls at the
Nyamata Genocide Memorial Centre
Part of a series on the
Rwandan genocide
Background
Events
Parties responsible
Response
Aftermath
Resources

The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War.[4] Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were systematically killed by Hutu militias. While the Rwandan Constitution states that over 1 million people were killed, most scholarly estimates suggest between 500,000 and 662,000 Tutsi died.[5][6] The genocide was marked by extreme violence, with victims often murdered by neighbors, and widespread sexual violence, with between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped.[7][3]

The genocide was rooted in long-standing ethnic tensions, exacerbated by the Rwandan Civil War, which began in 1990 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a predominantly Tutsi rebel group, invaded Rwanda from Uganda. The war reached a tentative peace with the Arusha Accords in 1993. However, the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994 ignited the genocide, as Hutu extremists used the power vacuum to target Tutsi and moderate Hutu leaders.[8]

Despite the scale of the atrocities, the international community failed to intervene to stop the killings.[9] The RPF resumed military operations in response to the genocide, eventually defeating the government forces and ending the genocide by capturing all government-controlled territory. This led to the flight of the génocidaires and many Hutu refugees into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), contributing to regional instability and triggering the First Congo War in 1996.

The legacy of the genocide remains significant in Rwanda. The country has instituted public holidays to commemorate the event and passed laws criminalizing "genocide ideology" and "divisionism."[10][11]

  1. ^ Meierhenrich, Jens (2020). "How Many Victims Were There in the Rwandan Genocide? A Statistical Debate". Journal of Genocide Research. 22 (1): 72–82. doi:10.1080/14623528.2019.1709611. ISSN 1462-3528. S2CID 213046710. The lower bound for Tutsi deaths is 491,000 (McDoom), see page 75 mention
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference AmericanUniversity was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Nowrojee 1996.
  4. ^ Barnett, Michael (2015). Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda (Afterword ed.). Cornell University Press. pp. 1, 15, 131–132. ISBN 978-0-8014-3883-7.
  5. ^ Reydams, Luc (2020). "'More than a million': the politics of accounting for the dead of the Rwandan genocide". Review of African Political Economy. 48 (168): 235–256. doi:10.1080/03056244.2020.1796320. S2CID 225356374. The government eventually settled on 'more than a million', a claim which few outside Rwanda have taken seriously.
  6. ^ Guichaoua, André (2 January 2020). "Counting the Rwandan Victims of War and Genocide: Concluding Reflections". Journal of Genocide Research. 22 (1): 125–141. doi:10.1080/14623528.2019.1703329. ISSN 1462-3528. S2CID 213471539. Archived from the original on 17 February 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  7. ^ Prunier 1995, p. 247.
  8. ^ Sullivan, Ronald (7 April 1994). "Juvenal Habyarimana, 57, Ruled Rwanda for 21 Years". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 13 June 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  9. ^ "Ignoring Genocide (HRW Report – Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, March 1999)". www.hrw.org. Archived from the original on 28 October 2023. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  10. ^ Sullo, Pietro (2018). "Writing History Through Criminal Law: State-Sponsored Memory in Rwanda". The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History After 1945. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 69–85. ISBN 978-1-349-95306-6.
  11. ^ Yakaré-Oulé, Jansen (11 April 2014). "Denying Genocide or Denying Free Speech? A Case Study of the Application of Rwanda's Genocide Denial Laws". Northwestern Journal of Human Rights. 12 (2): 192. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.