Human occupation of Rwanda is thought to have begun shortly after the last ice age. By the 11th century,the inhabitants had organized into a number of kingdoms. In the 19th century,Mwami (king) Rwabugiri of the Kingdom of Rwanda conducted a decades-long process of military conquest and administrative consolidation that resulted in the kingdom coming to control most of what is now Rwanda. The colonial powers,Germany and Belgium,allied with the Rwandan court.
Juvénal Habyarimana was a politician and military officer who served as the second president of Rwanda,from 1973 until his assassination in 1994. He was nicknamed Kinani,a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".
Paul Kagame is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who has served as the fourth President of Rwanda since 2000. He previously served as a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF),a rebel armed force which invaded Rwanda in 1990. The RPF was one of the parties of the conflict during the Rwandan Civil War and the armed force which ended the Rwandan genocide. He was considered Rwanda's de facto leader when he served as Vice President and Minister of Defence under President Pasteur Bizimungu from 1994 to 2000 after which the vice-presidential post was abolished.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front is the ruling political party in Rwanda. Led by President Paul Kagame,the party has governed the country since its armed wing defeated government forces,winning the Rwandan Civil War in 1994.
The Republican Democratic Movement was a political party in Rwanda.
The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 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. Although the Constitution of Rwanda states that more than 1 million people perished in the genocide,the real number killed is likely lower. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi deaths.
Faustin Twagiramungu is a Rwandan politician. He was Prime Minister from 1994 until his resignation in 1995,the first head of government appointed after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) captured Kigali. He then exiled himself to Belgium.
Agathe Uwilingiyimana,sometimes known as Madame Agathe,was a Rwandan political figure. She served as Prime Minister of Rwanda from 18 July 1993 until her assassination on 7 April 1994,during the opening stages of the Rwandan genocide. She was also Rwanda's acting head of state in the hours leading up to her death.
The Arusha Accords,officially the Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Rwandaand the Rwandan Patriotic Front,also known as the Arusha Peace Agreement or Arusha negotiations,were a set of five accords signed in Arusha,Tanzania on 4 August 1993,by the government of Rwanda and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF),under mediation,to end a three-year Rwandan Civil War. Primarily organized by the Organisation of African Unity and the heads of state in the African Great Lakes region,the talks began on 12 July 1992,and ended on 4 August 1993,when the accords were finally signed.
The Rwanda Defence Force is the military of the Republic of Rwanda. The country's armed forces were originally known as the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR),but following the Rwandan Civil War of 1990–1994 and the Rwandan genocide of 1994 against the Tutsi,the victorious Rwandan Patriotic Front (Inkotanyi) created a new organization and named it the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). Later,it was renamed to its current name.
The Rwandan Civil War was a large-scale civil war in Rwanda which was fought between the Rwandan Armed Forces,representing the country's government,and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from 1 October 1990 to 18 July 1994. The war arose from the long-running dispute between the Hutu and Tutsi groups within the Rwandan population. A 1959–1962 revolution had replaced the Tutsi monarchy with a Hutu-led republic,forcing more than 336,000 Tutsi to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. A group of these refugees in Uganda founded the RPF which,under the leadership of Fred Rwigyema and Paul Kagame,became a battle-ready army by the late 1980s.
The Federation of Green Parties of Africa is an umbrella body of the various national Green parties and environmental parties in Africa. The formal coalition,the African Greens Federation (AGF) formed in 2010 at a conference in Kampala,Uganda. As part of the Global Greens,founded in 2001 in Canberra,Australia,the parties included in the Federation of Green Parties of Africa follow the Global Greens Charter. The organization's permanent administration is in Ouagadougou,the capital of Burkina Faso,where the predominant green organization is the Rassemblement Des Ecologistes du Burkina Faso. These parties tend to,but not always,be left-leaning and often do not have widespread support in their respective countries.
Marcel Gatsinzi was a Rwandan soldier and politician,who was Minister of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs from 2010 to 2013. Gatsinzi also served as Rwanda's Minister of Defence from 2002 to 2010. An ethnic Hutu from Butare,Gatsinzi was a member of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR),which was the national army prior to the takeover of Rwanda by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Charles Murigande is a Rwandan political veteran who served in the government of Rwanda as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2008,as Minister of Governmental Affairs from 2008 to 2009,and as Minister of Education from 2009 to 2011. His last position was a Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Institutional Advancement of the University of Rwanda. Prior to being appointed to his current post,he served as Ambassador of Rwanda to Japan with concurrent accreditation to Australia,New Zealand,Thailand and the Philippines from August 2011 to April 2015.Currently,Ambassador Charles Murigande is the Chairman of the Kepler College’s Governance Council(Rwanda).
Presidential elections were held in Rwanda on 9 August 2010,the second since the Rwandan Civil War. Incumbent President Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was re-elected for a second seven-year term with 93% of the vote.
The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda is a green political party in Rwanda,established in 2009. The party was registered in August 2013,but too late to contest the 2013 parliamentary elections. Its platform emphasizes unity,non-violence,social justice,participatory democracy,and calls for subsidized prices for agricultural produce. It believes that the unalienable rights of the people include "the right to life,liberty,peaceful assembly,expression,worship and the pursuit of happiness",and that these rights are granted by God.
Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa is a Rwandan former Lieutenant general who formerly was the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Army from 1998 to 2002. He was also head of Rwandan intelligence from 1998 to 2002 and served as Rwanda's ambassador to India between 2004 and 2010. Nyamwasa has been an opposition leader in exile since as part of the Rwanda National Congress.
The United Democratic Forces of Rwanda is a coalition of Rwandan opposition groups. Since its foundation in 2006,the UDF-Inkingi has profiled itself as an opposition party whose main objective is to change the regime of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF),which has been in power since the end of the genocide against the Tutsis in July 1994. To this day,despite multiple attempts to become officially registered in Rwanda,the UDF-Inkingi has not yet been authorised to operate in Rwanda as a party. According to international human rights bodies,such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International,UDF-Inkingi members inside Rwanda have been regularly subjected to persecution and even to murder,mostly non-elucidated.
AndréKagwa Rwisereka was vice-chairman of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda,a political party founded in August 2009 in Rwanda. He was found murdered and partially beheaded near a wetland in Butare on 14 July 2010. The party chairman Frank Habineza was among opposition leaders who called for an independent international investigation into the murder,which may have had a political motivation.
Jean-Baptiste Habyalimana was a Rwandan academic and politician who served as the Prefect of Butare and was killed during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. He was the only Tutsi prefect at the time of the genocide,and also the only prefect belonging to the Liberal Party. He had resisted the genocide.
