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 Rwandan politician and military officer who was 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 been the President of Rwanda since 2000. He was previously 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 was 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.
The Rwandan genocide,also known as the genocide against the Tutsi,occurred between 7 April and 19 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 demographic evidence suggests that the real number killed was likely lower. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 662,000 Tutsi deaths.
Faustin Twagiramungu was a Rwandan politician. He was Prime Minister of Rwanda from 1994 until his resignation in 1995,the first head of government appointed after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) captured Kigali. He soon came to disagree with the RPF's policies and actions,resigned and was placed under house arrest,but managed to leave the country and settle in Belgium. He continued his opposition activity against Paul Kagame's rule,subsequently returning to Rwanda and standing for elections,but without success.
The First Congo War,also nicknamed Africa's First World War,was a civil war and international military conflict which lasted from 24 October 1996 to 16 May 1997 and took place mostly in Zaire,with major spillovers into Sudan and Uganda. The conflict culminated in a foreign invasion that replaced Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko with the rebel leader Laurent-DésiréKabila. Kabila's unstable government subsequently came into conflict with his allies,setting the stage for the Second Congo War in 1998–2003.
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.
Human rights in Rwanda have been violated on a grand scale. The greatest violation is the Rwandan genocide of Tutsi in 1994. The post-genocide government is also responsible for grave violations of human rights.
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.
Jean-Léonard Rugambage was a Rwandan journalist,acting editor of the newspaper Umuvugizi. He was murdered after an assailant shot him four times in front of his home in Kigali on 24 June 2010.
AndréKagwa Rwisereka was vice-chairman of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda,a political party founded in August 2009 in Rwanda.
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.
Presidential elections were held in Rwanda on 4 August 2017. The incumbent President of Rwanda,Paul Kagame,was re-elected to a third seven-year term,allegedly with 98.79% of the vote on a 98.15% turnout.
Since the end of the Rwandan Civil War,many forms of censorship have been implemented in Rwanda.
General elections were held in Rwanda on 15 July 2024 to elect the president and members of the Chamber of Deputies.
The inauguration of Paul Kagame as the president of Rwanda took place on August 11,2024,at Amahoro National Stadium in Kigali,Rwanda. This marked the beginning of Kagame's new term of a five-year term following his overwhelming victory in the 2024 presidential election where he received 99.18% of the vote. The ceremony was attended by numerous dignitaries,including at least 22 heads of state,as well as thousands of Rwandans and international guests.
