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167-550: This Memorial Center is one of six major centres in Rwanda that commemorate the 1994 genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda . The others are the Kigali Memorial Centre , Ntarama Memorial Centre and others at Nyamata Genocide Memorial Centre , Bisesero Memorial Centre and Nyarubuye . This was the site of a massacre during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. When the killings started, Tutsis in the region tried to hide at

334-1005: A League of Nations mandate over the previously German colony of Ruanda-Urundi . During World War II , the Belgian Congo provided a crucial source of income for the Belgian government in exile in London, and the Force Publique again participated in Allied campaigns in Africa . Belgian Congolese forces under the command of Belgian officers notably fought against the Italian colonial army in Ethiopia in Asosa , Bortaï and Saïo under Major-General Auguste-Eduard Gilliaert . In May 1960,

501-410: A kleptocracy as Mobutu and his associates embezzled government funds. In a campaign to identify himself with African nationalism, starting on 1 June 1966, Mobutu renamed the nation's cities: Léopoldville became Kinshasa (the country was known as Congo-Kinshasa), Stanleyville became Kisangani , Elisabethville became Lubumbashi , and Coquilhatville became Mbandaka . In 1971, Mobutu renamed the country

668-594: A Hutu emancipation movement began to grow in Rwanda, fuelled by increasing resentment of the inter-war social reforms, and also an increasing sympathy for the Hutu within the Catholic Church . Catholic missionaries increasingly viewed themselves as responsible for empowering the underprivileged Hutu rather than the Tutsi elite, leading rapidly to the formation of a sizeable Hutu clergy and educated elite that provided

835-522: A Hutu sub-chief, was attacked close to his home in Byimana , Gitarama prefecture , by supporters of the pro-Tutsi party. Mbonyumutwa survived, but rumours began spreading that he had been killed. Hutu activists responded by killing Tutsis, both the elite and ordinary civilians, marking the beginning of the Rwandan Revolution . The Tutsi responded with attacks of their own, but by this stage

1002-621: A campaign against Congolese ethnic Tutsis in eastern Zaire. A coalition of Rwandan and Ugandan armies invaded Zaire to overthrow the government of Mobutu, launching the First Congo War. The coalition allied with some opposition figures, led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila , becoming the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo . In 1997 Mobutu fled and Kabila marched into Kinshasa, naming himself as president and reverting

1169-467: A ceasefire with the RPF, but he had only limited control over his troops and was replaced by the hardline Bizimungu after just ten days. Genocidal killings began the following day. Soldiers, police, and militia quickly executed key Tutsi and moderate Hutu military and political leaders who could have assumed control in the ensuing power vacuum . Checkpoints and barricades were erected to screen all holders of

1336-782: A ceasefire, a plane crash near Ndola resulted in the death of Dag Hammarskjöld , the Secretary-General of the United Nations , along with all 15 passengers, setting off a succession crisis. Amidst widespread confusion and chaos, a temporary government was led by technicians (the Collège des commissaires généraux ). Katangan secession ended in January 1963 with the assistance of UN forces . Several short-lived governments of Joseph Ileo , Cyrille Adoula , and Moise Kapenda Tshombe took over in quick succession. Meanwhile, in

1503-593: A consequence of exploitation and disease. In some areas the population declined dramatically – it has been estimated that sleeping sickness and smallpox killed nearly half the population in the areas surrounding the lower Congo River. News of the abuses began to circulate. In 1904, the British consul at Boma in the Congo, Roger Casement , was instructed by the British government to investigate. His report, called

1670-559: A covert network within the army's ranks. In October 1990, Rwigyema led a force of over 4,000 rebels from Uganda, advancing 60 km (37 mi) into Rwanda under the banner of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Rwigyema was killed on the third day of the attack, and France and Zaire deployed forces in support of the Rwandan army, allowing them to repel the invasion. Rwigyema's deputy, Paul Kagame , took command of

1837-522: A former Rwandan soldier who said he had evidence that Kagame had ordered Habyarimana's plane shot down, was abducted in Nairobi hours after he was called to testify at the French inquiry. He was reportedly "join[ing] a long list of Mr Kagame's opponents who have disappeared or died". Despite disagreements about the perpetrators, many observers believe the attack and deaths of the two Hutu presidents served as

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2004-686: A growing nationalist movement, the Mouvement National Congolais led by Patrice Lumumba , won the parliamentary elections . Lumumba became the first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, on 24 June 1960. The parliament elected Joseph Kasa-Vubu as president , of the Alliance des Bakongo ( ABAKO ) party. Other parties that emerged included the Parti Solidaire Africain led by Antoine Gizenga , and

2171-579: A joint Anglo-Belgian-Portuguese invasion of German colonial territory in 1916 and 1917 during the East African campaign . The Force Publique gained a notable victory when it marched into Tabora in September 1916 under the command of General Charles Tombeur after heavy fighting. After 1918, Belgium was rewarded for the participation of the Force Publique in the East African campaign with

2338-460: A lack of infrastructure, corruption, and centuries of both commercial and colonial extraction and exploitation, followed by more than 60 years of independence, with little widespread development. Besides the capital Kinshasa, the two next largest cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi , are both mining communities. The DRC's largest export is raw minerals, with China accepting over 50% of its exports in 2019. In 2021, DR Congo's level of human development

2505-475: A large sale of arms from Egypt. The Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) expanded rapidly at this time, growing from less than 10,000 troops to almost 30,000 in one year. The new recruits were often poorly disciplined; a divide grew between the elite Presidential Guard and Gendarmerie units, who were well trained and battle ready, and the ordinary rank and file, respectively. In March 1993, Hutu Power began compiling lists of "traitors" whom they planned to kill, and it

2672-409: A local church. However, the bishop and mayor lured them into a trap by sending them to the technical school, claiming that French troops would protect them there. On April 16, 1994, an average of 65,000 Tutsis traveled to the school. Once the victims arrived, no water or food was provided. This was done to ensure the people were too weak to resist. After defending themselves for a few days using stones,

2839-623: A magazine called Kangura , which became popular throughout the country. This published anti-Tutsi propaganda, including the Hutu Ten Commandments , an explicit set of racist guidelines, including labelling Hutus who married Tutsis as "traitors". In 1992, the hardliners created the Coalition for the Defence of the Republic (CDR) party, which was linked to the ruling party but more right-wing , and promoted an agenda critical of

3006-605: A mission to kill them. Fatalities that evening included President of the Constitutional Court Joseph Kavaruganda , Minister of Agriculture Frederic Nzamurambaho, Parti Liberal leader Landwald Ndasingwa and his Canadian wife, and chief Arusha negotiator Boniface Ngulinzira. A few moderates survived, including prime minister-designate Faustin Twagiramungu , but the plot was largely successful. According to Dallaire, "by noon on 7 April,

3173-648: A monopoly over violence and resource extraction. The most violent of these concession regions, were surrounding rubber plantations. Concession regions would align with villages, employing local chiefs to aid in enforce strict quotas. Failure to comply or to meet quotas would result in kidnaping of family, held ransom until quotas could be met or physical violence. Violence was carried out by "village sentries," European militias employed to ensure collection. These sentries were granted full impunity for violence, without proper oversight were known to kill and eat underperforming workers. During 1885–1908, millions of Congolese died as

3340-646: A more determined stance from the international community would likely have prevented the worst from happening. In Kigali, the genocide was led by the Presidential Guard, the elite unit of the army. They were assisted by the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, who set up roadblocks throughout the capital; each person passing the roadblock was required to show the national identity card, which included ethnicity, and any with Tutsi cards were killed immediately. The militias also initiated searches of houses in

3507-488: A new counterbalance to the established political order. The monarchy and prominent Tutsis sensed the growing influence of the Hutu and began to agitate for immediate independence on their own terms. In 1957, a group of Hutu scholars wrote the " Bahutu Manifesto ". This was the first document to label the Tutsi and Hutu as separate races, and called for the transfer of power from Tutsi to Hutu based on what it termed "statistical law". On 1 November 1959 Dominique Mbonyumutwa ,

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3674-575: A peacekeeping force, arrived in the country and the RPF were given a base in the national parliament building in Kigali, for use during the setting up of the BBTG. In the early years of Habyarimana's regime, there was greater economic prosperity and reduced violence against Tutsis. Many hardline anti-Tutsi figures remained, including the family of the first lady Agathe Habyarimana , who were known as

3841-399: A system of forced labour which Hutu had to perform to regain access to land seized from them, and ubuhake , under which Tutsi patrons ceded cattle to Hutu or Tutsi clients in exchange for economic and personal service. Although Hutu and Tutsi were often treated differently, they shared the same language and culture, the same clan names, and the same customs; the symbols of kinship served as

4008-578: A third even further east and south around the Upemba Depression . By the 13th century there were three main confederations of states in the western Congo Basin around Pool Malebo. In the east were the Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza , considered to be the oldest and most powerful, which likely included Nsundi , Mbata , Mpangu , and possibly Kundi and Okanga . South of these was Mpemba which stretched from modern-day Angola to

4175-490: A unifying bond between them. Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi were assigned to Germany by the Berlin Conference of 1884 , and Germany established a presence in the country in 1897 with the formation of an alliance with the king. German policy was to rule the country through the Rwandan monarchy; this system had the added benefit of enabling colonization with small European troop numbers. The colonists favoured

4342-422: A week after its formation, he found most officials at leisure, describing their activities as "sorting out the seating plan for a meeting that was not about to convene any time soon". During the remainder of April and early May, the Presidential Guard, gendarmerie and the youth militia, aided by local populations, continued killing at a very high rate. The goal was to kill every Tutsi living in Rwanda and, with

4509-613: Is a member of the United Nations , Non-Aligned Movement , African Union , COMESA , Southern African Development Community , Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie , and Economic Community of Central African States . The Democratic Republic of the Congo is named after the Congo River , which flows through the country. The Congo River is the world's deepest river and the world's third-largest river by discharge . The Comité d'études du haut Congo ("Committee for

4676-595: Is not credible as it overestimates the number of Tutsi in Rwanda prior to the genocide. Using different methodologies, the scholars in the symposium estimated 500,000 to 600,000 deaths in the genocide—around two-thirds of the Tutsis in Rwanda at the time. Thousands of widows, many of whom were subjected to rape, became HIV-positive. There were about 400,000 orphans and nearly 85,000 of them were forced to become heads of families. An estimated 2,000,000 Rwandans, mostly Hutu, were displaced and became refugees. Additionally, 30% of

4843-605: Is now a genocide museum exhibiting the skeletons and mummified bodies of some of the thousands of people killed in Gikongoro Province in 1994. In his study of Rwandan genocide memorials, Timothy Longman argues that although the bodies on display at Murambi are presented as those of people killed on site, in reality they are bodies brought to Murambi from throughout the surrounding area. Those killed at Murambi were buried in mass graves on site in 1996. Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide , also known as

5010-489: Is possible that Habyarimana's name was on these lists; the CDR were publicly accusing the president of treason. During 1993, the hardliners imported machetes on a scale far larger than what was required for agriculture, as well as other tools which could be used as weapons, such as razor blades, saws and scissors. These tools were distributed around the country, ostensibly as part of the civil defence network. In October 1993,

5177-598: The akazu or clan de Madame , and the president relied on them to maintain his regime. When the RPF invaded in October 1990, Habyarimana and the hardliners exploited the fear of the population to advance an anti-Tutsi agenda which became known as Hutu Power . Tutsi were increasingly viewed with suspicion. A pogrom was organised on 11 October 1990 in a commune in Gisenyi Province , killing 383 Tutsi. A group of military officers and government members founded

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5344-436: The 2018 general election , in the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence, Kabila was succeeded as president in a highly contentious election won by Félix Tshisekedi , who has served as president since. Since 2015, eastern Congo has been the site of an ongoing military conflict . The Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely rich in natural resources but has suffered from political instability,

5511-475: 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. Despite the scale of the atrocities, the international community failed to intervene to stop the killings. The RPF resumed military operations in response to the genocide, eventually defeating

5678-559: The Camp Kigali military base, where they were tortured and killed. Major Bernard Ntuyahaga , the commanding officer of the presidential guard unit which carried out the murders, was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment by a court in Belgium in 2007. In addition to assassinating Uwilingiyimana, the extremists spent the night of 6–7 April moving around the houses of Kigali with lists of prominent moderate politicians and journalists, on

5845-469: The Casement Report , confirmed the accusations of humanitarian abuses. The Belgian Parliament forced Leopold II to set up an independent commission of inquiry. Its findings confirmed Casement's report of abuses, concluding that the population of the Congo had been "reduced by half" during this period. Determining precisely how many people died is impossible, as no accurate records exist. In 1908,

6012-592: The Conference of Berlin in 1885 and made the land his private property. He named it the Congo Free State . Leopold's regime began various infrastructure projects, such as the construction of the railway that ran from the coast to the capital of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), which took eight years to complete. In the Free State, colonists coerced the local population into producing rubber, for which

6179-602: The Congo Free State , Belgian Congo , the Republic of the Congo-Léopoldville , the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Zaire , before returning to its current name the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the time of independence, the country was named the Republic of the Congo-Léopoldville to distinguish it from its neighbour Congo , officially the Republic of the Congo . With

6346-567: The Congo River . It included various kingdoms such as Mpemba Kasi and Vunda . To its west across the Congo River was a confederation of three small states; Vungu (its leader), Kakongo , and Ngoyo . The Kingdom of Kongo was founded in the 14th century and dominated the western region. The empire of Mwene Muji was founded around Lake Mai-Ndombe. From the Upemba Depression the Luba Empire and Lunda Empire emerged in

6513-673: The First Congo War . The country then had its name changed back and was confronted by the Second Congo War from 1998 to 2003, which resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people and the assassination of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila . The war ended under President Joseph Kabila , who governed the country from 2001 to 2019 and under whom human rights in the country remained poor and included frequent abuses such as forced disappearances , torture, arbitrary imprisonment and restrictions on civil liberties. Following

6680-507: The Garamba National Park . The war in the Congo has been described as the bloodiest war since World War II. In 2009, The New York Times reported that people in the Congo continued to die at a rate of an estimated 45,000 per month  – estimates of the number who have died from the long conflict range from 900,000 to 5,400,000. The death toll is caused by widespread disease and famine; reports indicate that almost half of

6847-668: The Kagera River , which ran along the northern border between Rwanda and Uganda and flowed into Lake Victoria . This disposal of bodies caused significant damage to the Ugandan fishing industry, as consumers refused to buy fish caught in Lake Victoria for fear that they were tainted by decomposing corpses. The Ugandan government responded by dispatching teams to retrieve the bodies from the Kagera River before they entered

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7014-527: The Kongo language (also called Kikongo ). According to American writer Samuel Henry Nelson: "It is probable that the word 'Kongo' itself implies a public gathering and that it is based on the root konga , 'to gather' (trans[itive])." The modern name of the Kongo people, Bakongo , was introduced in the early 20th century. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been known in the past as, in chronological order,

7181-574: The National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), which began an armed rebellion against the government. In March 2009, after a deal between the DRC and Rwanda, Rwandan troops entered the DRC and arrested Nkunda and were allowed to pursue FDLR militants. The CNDP signed a peace treaty with the government in which it agreed to become a political party and to have its soldiers integrated into

7348-684: The National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) party in 1975, and promulgated a new constitution following a 1978 referendum , making the country a one-party state in which every citizen had to belong to the MRND. At 408 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,060/sq mi), Rwanda's population density is among the highest in Africa. Rwanda's population had increased from 1.6 million people in 1934 to 7.1 million in 1989, leading to competition for land. Historians such as Gérard Prunier believe that

7515-682: The Norwegian Refugee Council , the situation in the DRC became much worse in 2016 and 2017 and is a major moral and humanitarian challenge comparable to the wars in Syria and Yemen, which receive much more attention. Women and children are abused sexually and "abused in all possible manners". Besides the conflict in North Kivu , violence increased in the Kasai region . The armed groups were after gold, diamonds, oil, and cobalt to line

7682-609: The Pygmy Batwa were killed. On 9 April, UN observers witnessed the massacre of children at a Polish church in Gikondo . The same day, 1,000 heavily armed and well-trained European troops arrived to escort European civilian personnel out of the country. The troops did not stay to assist UNAMIR. Media coverage picked up on the 9th, as The Washington Post reported the execution of Rwandan employees of relief agencies in front of their expatriate colleagues. Butare prefecture

7849-591: The Republic of Zaire , its fourth name change in eleven years and its sixth overall. The Congo River was renamed the Zaire River. During the 1970s and 1980s, Mobutu was invited to visit the United States on several occasions, meeting with U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon , Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush . Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union U.S. relations with Mobutu cooled, as he

8016-665: The South Atlantic Ocean . Centered on the Congo Basin , the territory of the Congo was first inhabited by Central African foragers around 90,000 years ago and was settled in the Bantu expansion about 3000 to 2000 years ago. In the west, the Kingdom of Kongo ruled around the mouth of the Congo River from the 14th to 19th centuries. In the center and east, the empires of Mwene Muji , Luba , and Lunda ruled from

8183-619: The genocide against the Tutsi , occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War . 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. The genocide

8350-453: The "Democratic Republic of the Congo". In 1971 Mobutu changed the name again, this time to "Republic of Zaire". Mobutu had the staunch support of the United States because of his opposition to communism ; the U.S. believed that his administration would serve as an effective counter to communist movements in Africa. A single-party system was established, and Mobutu declared himself head of state . He periodically held elections in which he

8517-459: The 100,000 Europeans who had remained behind after independence fled the country. After the United Nations rejected Lumumba's call for help to put down the secessionist movements, Lumumba asked for assistance from the Soviet Union, who accepted and sent military supplies and advisers. On 23 August, the Congolese armed forces invaded South Kasai . Lumumba was dismissed from office on 5 September 1960 by Kasa-Vubu who publicly blamed him for massacres by

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8684-432: The 15th and 17th centuries respectfully dominated the eastern region. Belgian exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the 1920s. It was first led by Henry Morton Stanley , who undertook his explorations under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium . The eastern regions of the precolonial Congo were heavily disrupted by constant slave raiding , mainly from Arab–Swahili slave traders such as

8851-430: The 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. King Leopold II of Belgium formally acquired rights to the Congo territory from the colonial nations of Europe in 1885 and declared the land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State . From 1885 to 1908, his colonial military forced the local population to produce rubber and committed widespread atrocities . In 1908, Leopold ceded

9018-415: The 1988 discovery of the Semliki harpoon at Katanda , one of the oldest barbed harpoons ever found, believed to have been used to catch giant river catfish . Bantu peoples reached Central Africa at some point during the first millennium BC, then gradually started to expand southward. Their propagation was accelerated by the adoption of pastoralism and of Iron Age techniques. The people living in

9185-452: The 1994 genocide can be partly attributed to population density. In the 1980s, a group of 500 Rwandan refugees in Uganda, led by Fred Rwigyema , fought with the rebel National Resistance Army (NRA) in the Ugandan Bush War , which saw Yoweri Museveni overthrow Milton Obote . These soldiers remained in the Ugandan army following Museveni's inauguration as Ugandan president , but simultaneously began planning an invasion of Rwanda through

9352-536: The Belgian Congo and the majority of Leopold II's administration with him. Opening up the Congo and its natural and mineral riches to the Belgian economy remained the main motive for colonial expansion – however, other priorities, such as healthcare and basic education, slowly gained in importance. Colonial administrators ruled the territory and a dual legal system existed (a system of European courts and another one of indigenous courts, tribunaux indigènes ). Indigenous courts had only limited powers and remained under

9519-463: The Belgian Congo. The railway first commenced in the Congo in 1910, reaching a 800-km network of track. In 1923 the colonial capital moved from Boma to Léopoldville, some 300 kilometres (190 mi) further upstream into the interior. The transition from the Congo Free State to the Belgian Congo was a break, but it also featured a large degree of continuity. The last governor-general of the Congo Free State, Baron Théophile Wahis , remained in office in

9686-486: The Belgian parliament, in spite of initial reluctance, bowed to international pressure (especially from the United Kingdom ) and took over the Free State from King Leopold II. On 18 October 1908, the Belgian parliament voted in favour of annexing the Congo as a Belgian colony. Executive power went to the Belgian minister of colonial affairs , assisted by a Colonial Council (Conseil Colonial) (both located in Brussels). The Belgian parliament exercised legislative authority over

9853-430: The Central African Republic on behalf of its former president, Ange-Félix Patassé . Talks led to a peace accord under which Kabila would share power with former rebels. By June 2003 all foreign armies except those of Rwanda had pulled out of Congo. A transitional government was set up until after the election. A constitution was approved by voters, and on 30 July 2006 DRC held its first multi-party elections . These were

10020-504: The Congo , led by Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba . The two rebel movements, along with Rwandan and Ugandan troops, started the Second Congo War by attacking the DRC army in 1998. Angolan, Zimbabwean, and Namibian militaries entered the hostilities on the side of the government. Kabila was assassinated in 2001. His son Joseph Kabila succeeded him and called for multilateral peace talks. UN peacekeepers, MONUC, now known as MONUSCO , arrived in April 2001. In 2002–03 Bemba intervened in

10187-412: The DROC , and RDC (in French). Before Bantu expansion , the territory comprising the Democratic Republic of the Congo was home to Central Africa's oldest settled groups, the Mbuti peoples . Most of the remnants of their hunter-gatherer culture remain in the present time. The geographical area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was populated as early as 90,000 years ago, as shown by

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10354-407: The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa , which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo , Central African Republic , South Sudan , Uganda , Rwanda , Burundi , Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika ), Zambia , Angola , the Cabinda exclave of Angola , and

10521-436: The French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière concluded that Paul Kagame had ordered the assassination. An investigation by the Rwandan government made public in 2010 blamed Hutu extremists in the Rwandan army. In January 2012, a French investigation was widely published as exonerating the RPF, but according to Filip Reyntjens , the report did not exonerate the RPF. In November 2014, Emmanuel Mughisa (also known as Emile Gafarita),

10688-428: The French, displaying the French flag on their own vehicles, but killing Tutsi who came out of hiding seeking protection. In July, the RPF completed their conquest of the country, with the exception of the zone occupied by Operation Turquoise. The RPF took Kigali on 4 July, and Gisenyi and the rest of the northwest on 18 July. The genocide was over, but as had occurred in Kibungo, the Hutu population fled en masse across

10855-416: The Hutu Power movement represented a third major force in Rwandan politics, in addition to Habyarimana's government and the traditional moderate opposition. Apart from the CDR, there was no party that was exclusively part of the Power movement. Instead, almost every party was split into "moderate" and "Power" wings, with members of both camps claiming to represent the legitimate leadership of that party. Even

11022-518: The Hutu disenfranchised. In the early 1930s, Belgium introduced a permanent division of the population by classifying Rwandans into three ethnic (ethno-racial) groups, with the Hutu representing about 84% of the population, the Tutsi about 15%, and the Twa about 1%. Compulsory identity cards were issued labeling (under the heading for "ethnicity and race") each individual as either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa, or Naturalised. While it had previously been possible for particularly wealthy Hutus to become honorary Tutsis,

11189-410: The Hutu had full backing from the Belgian administration who wanted to overturn the Tutsi domination. In early 1960, the Belgians replaced most Tutsi chiefs with Hutu and organised mid-year commune elections which returned an overwhelming Hutu majority. The king was deposed, a Hutu-dominated republic created, and the country became independent in 1962. As the revolution progressed, Tutsis began leaving

11356-416: The Office of the Prosecutor has consistently failed to demonstrate is the alleged existence of a "conspiracy" among the accused—presuming an association or a preexisting plan to commit genocide. This is the central argument at the core of its prosecution strategy, borrowing from the contentions initially put forth by academics and human rights defenders. With the exception of two judgements, confirmed on appeal,

11523-414: The Parti National du Peuple led by Albert Delvaux and Laurent Mbariko . The Belgian Congo achieved independence on 30 June 1960 under the name "République du Congo" ("Republic of Congo" or "Republic of the Congo" in English). Shortly after, on 15 August 1960, the neighboring French colony of Middle Congo also gained independence and adopted the same name, ' Republic of Congo .' To avoid confusion between

11690-422: The President of Burundi, Melchior Ndadaye , who had been elected in June as the country's first ever Hutu president, was assassinated by extremist Tutsi army officers. The assassination sparked the Burundi Civil War between Burundi's Hutu and Tutsi and the Burundi genocide , with 50,000 to 100,000 people killed in the first year of war. The assassination caused shockwaves, reinforcing the notion among Hutus that

11857-460: The RPF forces, organising a tactical retreat through Uganda to the Virunga Mountains , a rugged area of northern Rwanda. From there, he rearmed and reorganised the army, and carried out fundraising and recruitment from the Tutsi diaspora. Kagame restarted the war in January 1991, with a surprise attack on the northern town of Ruhengeri . The RPF captured the town, benefiting from the element of surprise, and held it for one day before retreating to

12024-592: The RPF-conquered areas fled, fearing retribution for the genocide; 500,000 Kibungo residents walked over the bridge at Rusumo Falls into Tanzania in a few days at the end of April, and were accommodated in United Nations camps effectively controlled by ousted leaders of the Hutu regime, with the former prefect of Kibungo prefecture in overall control. In the remaining prefectures, killings continued throughout May and June, although they became increasingly low-key and sporadic; most Tutsi were already dead, and

12191-529: The RTLM and the Interahamwe, while Pascal Musabe and Joseph Nzirorera were responsible for coordinating the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militia activities nationally. Military leaders in Gisenyi prefecture , the heartland of the akazu , were initially the most organized, convening a gathering of the Interahamwe and civilian Hutus; the commanders announced the president's death, blaming the RPF, and then ordered

12358-462: The Simba rebels by November 1965. Lumumba had previously appointed Mobutu chief of staff of the new Congo army, Armée Nationale Congolaise . Taking advantage of the leadership crisis between Kasavubu and Tshombe, Mobutu garnered enough support within the army to launch a coup. A constitutional referendum the year before Mobutu's coup of 1965 resulted in the country's official name being changed to

12525-596: The Study of the Upper Congo"), established by King Leopold II of Belgium in 1876, and the International Association of the Congo , established by him in 1879, were also named after the river. The Congo River was named by early European sailors after the Kingdom of Kongo and its Bantu inhabitants, the Kongo people , when they encountered them in the 16th century. The word Kongo comes from

12692-537: The Trial Chambers have uniformly found the prosecution's proof of a conspiracy wanting, regardless of the case. The Power groups believed that the national radio station, Radio Rwanda , had become too liberal and supportive of the opposition; they founded a new radio station, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). The RTLM was designed to appeal to the young adults in Rwanda and had extensive reach. Unlike newspapers that could only be found in cities,

12859-439: The Tutsi "caste". These mythologies provide the basis for anti-Tutsi propaganda in 1994. Starkly contrasted, the Tutsi origin myth holds that Kanyarwanda had several sons, including Gatutsi and Gahutu, ancestors of the Tutsi and Hutu who are therefore brothers. The Hutu origin myth holds that Kigwa (patrilineal ancestor of Ruhanga and the first Tutsi) fell from the sky on an earth inhabited by Hutu. After World War II ,

13026-482: The Tutsi Nyiginya clan, became the dominant kingdom from the mid-eighteenth century, expanding through a process of conquest and assimilation, and achieving its greatest extent under the reign of King Kigeli Rwabugiri in 1853–1895. Rwabugiri expanded the kingdom west and north, and initiated administrative reforms which caused a rift to grow between the Hutu and Tutsi populations. These included uburetwa ,

13193-499: The Tutsi over the Hutu when assigning administrative roles, believing them to be migrants from Ethiopia and racially superior. The Rwandan king welcomed the Germans, using their military strength to widen his rule. Belgian forces took control of Rwanda and Burundi in 1917 during World War I , and from 1926 began a policy of more direct colonial rule. The Belgians modernised the Rwandan economy, but Tutsi supremacy remained, leaving

13360-476: The Tutsi were overrun on April 21. The French soldiers disappeared and the school was attacked by Hutu Interahamwe militiamen. Some 20,000 Tutsi were murdered at the school, and almost all of those who managed to escape were killed the next day when they tried to hide in a nearby church. The death toll of around 50,000 given by the government is not supported by the number of bodies exhumed, even considering yet to be opened graves and unburied bodies. According to

13527-490: The Tutsi were their enemy and could not be trusted. The CDR and the Power wings of the other parties realised they could use this situation to their advantage. The idea of a deliberate and systematic genocide, which had first been suggested in 1992 but had remained a fringe viewpoint, was now top of their agenda, and they began actively planning it. They were confident of persuading the Hutu population to carry out killings, given

13694-470: The Tutsi. Most of the victims were killed in their own villages or in towns, often by their neighbors and fellow villagers. The militia typically murdered victims with machetes , although some army units used rifles. The Hutu gangs searched out victims hiding in churches and school buildings and massacred them. Local officials and government-sponsored radio incited ordinary citizens to kill their neighbors, and those who refused to kill were often murdered on

13861-549: The Tutsi. Rape was used as a tool by the Interahamwe , the chief perpetrators, to separate the consciously heterogeneous population and to drastically exhaust the opposing group. The use of propaganda played an important role in both the genocide and the gender specific violence. The Hutu propaganda depicted Tutsi women as "a sexually seductive ' fifth column ' in league with the Hutus' enemies". The exceptional brutality of

14028-560: The Tutsi. The RPF responded by suspending peace talks and launching a major attack, gaining a large swathe of land across the north of the country. Peace negotiations eventually resumed in Arusha; the resulting set of agreements, known as the Arusha Accords , were signed in August 1993 and gave the RPF positions in a Broad-Based Transitional Government (BBTG) and in the national army. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR),

14195-404: The Tutsis. One such broadcast stated, "Someone must   ... make them disappear for good   ... to wipe them from human memory   ... to exterminate the Tutsi from the surface of the earth." By the time the violence began, the young Hutu population had absorbed months of racist propaganda that characterized all Tutsis as dangerous enemies that must be killed before they seized control of

14362-594: The armed forces in South Kasai and for involving Soviets in the country. On 7 September, Lumumba made a speech to the Congolese House of Representatives, arguing his dismissal was illegal under the nation's laws. Congolese law gave parliament, not the president, the authority to dismiss a government minister. The House and Senate both rejected the dismissal of Lumumba, but the removal proceeded unconstitutionally. On 14 September, Colonel Joseph Mobutu , with

14529-563: The army began arming civilians with weapons such as machetes, and it began training the Hutu youth in combat, officially as a programme of "civil defence" against the RPF threat, but these weapons were later used to carry out the genocide. In particular, the Hutu Power leaders organized a paramilitary or militia force known as the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi . These groups served to provide auxiliary slaughterhouse support to

14696-497: The assassination of Habyarimana, Bagosora immediately began issuing orders to kill Tutsi, addressing groups of interahamwe in person in Kigali, and making telephone calls to leaders in the prefectures. Other leading organisers on a national level were defence minister Augustin Bizimana ; commander of the paratroopers Aloys Ntabakuze ; and the head of the Presidential Guard, Protais Mpiranya . Businessman Félicien Kabuga funded

14863-493: The assumption of that paper that media availability correlated with media consumption. On 6 April 1994, the airplane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira , the Hutu president of Burundi , was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali , killing everyone on board. Responsibility for the attack was disputed, with both the RPF and Hutu extremists being blamed. In 2006, an eight-year investigation by

15030-460: The backing of the US and Belgium, removed Lumumba from office. On 17 January 1961, Lumumba was handed over to Katangan authorities and executed by Belgian-led Katangan troops. A 2001 investigation by Belgium's Parliament found Belgium "morally responsible" for the murder of Lumumba, and the country has since officially apologised for its role in his death. On 18 September 1961, in ongoing negotiations of

15197-461: The border, this time into Zaire, with Bagosora and the other leaders accompanying them. The succeeding RPF government claims that 1,074,017 people were killed in the genocide, 94% of whom were Tutsi. In contrast, Human Rights Watch , following on-the-ground research, estimated the casualties at 507,000 people. According to a 2020 symposium of the Journal of Genocide Research , the official figure

15364-409: The capital. The crisis committee was officially dissolved, but Bagosora and the senior officers remained the de facto rulers of the country. The government played its part in mobilising the population, giving the regime an air of legitimacy, but was effectively a puppet regime with no ability to halt the army or the Interahamwe's activities. When Roméo Dallaire visited the government's headquarters

15531-541: The catalyst for the genocide. Following Habyarimana's death, on the evening of 6 April, a crisis committee was formed; it consisted of Major General Augustin Ndindiliyimana , Colonel Théoneste Bagosora , and a number of other senior army staff officers. The committee was headed by Bagosora, despite the presence of the more senior Ndindiliyimana. Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana was legally next in

15698-404: The chain of command for the execution of the genocide. The prefect of each prefecture, acting on orders from Kigali, disseminated instructions to the commune leaders ( bourgmestres ), who in turn issued directions to the leaders of the sectors, cells and villages within their communes. The majority of the actual killings in the countryside were carried out by ordinary civilians, under orders from

15865-415: The city, killing Tutsi and looting their property. Tharcisse Renzaho , the prefect of Kigali-ville, played a leading role, touring the roadblocks to ensure their effectiveness and using his position at the top of the Kigali provincial government to disseminate orders and dismiss officials who were not sufficiently active in the killings. In rural areas, the local government hierarchy was also in most cases

16032-652: The country to escape the Hutu purges, settling in the four neighbouring countries: Burundi, Uganda , Tanzania and Zaire . These exiles, unlike the Banyarwanda who migrated during the pre-colonial and colonial era, were regarded as refugees in their host countries, and began almost immediately to agitate for a return to Rwanda. They formed armed groups who launched attacks into Rwanda; these were largely unsuccessful, and led to further reprisal killings of 10,000 Tutsis and further Tutsi exiles. By 1964, more than 300,000 Tutsis had fled, and were forced to remain in exile for

16199-416: The country to the "Democratic Republic of the Congo", but the change was not made. The country's name was later restored by President Laurent-Désiré Kabila when he overthrew Mobutu in 1997. To distinguish it from the neighboring Republic of the Congo, it is sometimes referred to as Congo (Kinshasa) , Congo-Kinshasa , or Big Congo . Its name is sometimes also abbreviated as Congo DR , DR Congo , DRC ,

16366-464: The country. The army trained the militias, sometimes in conjunction with the French, who were unaware of their true purpose. To what extent the Rwandan genocide was planned in advance of the assassination of Habyarimana continues to be debated by historians. Prosecutors at the ICTR argued, but were unable to prove, that the defendants planned the genocide prior to Habyarimana's assassination. In 1990,

16533-516: The country. The RTLM's role in the genocide earned it the nickname "Radio Machete" as it related to their incitement to genocide. A 2014 study by Harvard Kennedy School researcher David Yanagizawa-Drott found that approximately 10% of the overall violence during the Rwandan genocide can be attributed to this new radio station. Gordon Danning, a researcher with the free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education questioned

16700-410: The crowd to "begin your work" and to "spare no one", including infants. The killing spread to Ruhengeri , Kibuye , Kigali , Kibungo , Gikongoro and Cyangugu prefectures on 7 April; in each case, local officials, responding to orders from Kigali, spread rumours that the RPF had killed the president, followed by a command to kill Tutsi. The Hutu population, which had been prepared and armed during

16867-470: The duress factor—villagers who refused to carry out orders to kill were often branded as Tutsi sympathisers and they themselves killed. There were few killings in the prefectures of Gitarama and Butare during the early phase, as the prefects of those areas were moderates opposed to the violence. The genocide began in Gitarama after the interim government relocated to the prefecture on 12 April. Butare

17034-602: The east of the country, Soviet and Cuban-backed rebels called the Simbas rose up, taking a significant amount of territory and proclaiming a communist "People's Republic of the Congo" in Stanleyville. The Simbas were pushed out of Stanleyville in November 1964 during Operation Dragon Rouge , a military operation conducted by Belgian and American forces to rescue hundreds of hostages. Congolese government forces fully defeated

17201-504: The entire ethnic group as one homogeneous threat to Rwandans. The RTLM went further than amplifying ethnic and political division; it also labeled the Tutsi as inyenzi , meaning non-human pests or cockroaches, which must be exterminated. Leading up to the genocide, there were 294 instances of the RTLM accusing the Rwandan Patriotic Army of atrocities against the Hutu, along with 252 broadcasts that called for Hutus to kill

17368-494: The event and passed laws criminalizing " genocide ideology " and "divisionism." The earliest inhabitants of what is now Rwanda were the Twa , a group of aboriginal pygmy hunter-gatherers who settled in the area between 8000 BC and 3000 BC and remain in Rwanda today. Between 700 BC and 1500 AD, a number of Bantu groups migrated into Rwanda, and began to clear forest land for agriculture. Historians have several theories regarding

17535-460: The exception of the advancing rebel RPF army, there was no opposition force to prevent or slow the killings. The domestic opposition had already been eliminated, and UNAMIR were expressly forbidden to use force except in self-defence. In rural areas, where Tutsi and Hutu lived side by side and families knew each other, it was easy for Hutu to identify and target their Tutsi neighbours. In urban areas, where residents were more anonymous, identification

17702-535: The existing society. Under this theory, the Hutu and Tutsi distinction arose later and was not a racial one, but principally a class or caste distinction in which the Tutsi herded cattle while the Hutu farmed the land. The Hutu, Tutsi and Twa of Rwanda share a common language and are collectively known as the Banyarwanda . The population coalesced, first into clans ( ubwoko ), and then, by 1700, into around eight kingdoms. The Kingdom of Rwanda , ruled by

17869-544: The firm control of the colonial administration. The Belgian authorities permitted no political activity in the Congo whatsoever, and the Force Publique put down any attempts at rebellion. The Belgian Congo was directly involved in the two world wars. During World War I (1914–1918), an initial stand-off between the Force Publique and the German colonial army in German East Africa turned into open warfare with

18036-611: The first free national elections since 1960, which many believed would mark the end to violence in the region. However, an election-result dispute between Kabila and Bemba turned into a skirmish between their supporters in Kinshasa. MONUC took control of the city. A new election took place in October 2006, which Kabila won, and in December 2006 he was sworn in as president. Laurent Nkunda , a member of Rally for Congolese Democracy–Goma , defected along with troops loyal to him and formed

18203-520: The forests. For the next year, the RPF waged a hit-and-run style guerrilla war , capturing some border areas but not making significant gains against the Rwandan army. In June 1992, following the formation of a multiparty coalition government in Kigali , the RPF announced a ceasefire and began negotiations with the Rwandan government in Arusha , Tanzania. In early 1993, several extremist Hutu groups formed and began campaigns of large scale violence against

18370-493: 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

18537-400: The government of France had allegedly supported the Hutu government after the genocide had begun. The large-scale killing of Tutsi on the grounds of ethnicity began within a few hours of Habyarimana's death. The crisis committee, headed by Théoneste Bagosora , took power in the country following Habyarimana's death, and was the principal authority coordinating the genocide. Following

18704-518: The guide at the memorial, the French brought in heavy equipment to dig several pits where many thousands of bodies were placed. They then placed a volleyball court over the mass graves in an attempt to hide what happened. Among the bodies currently displayed are those of children and infants. Only 34 people are thought to have survived the massacre in Murambi. The memorial was founded on 21 April 1995. The site contains 50,000 graves. The school building

18871-481: The hardline family with a link to power. Throughout 1992, the hardliners carried out campaigns of localised killings of Tutsi, culminating in January 1993, in which extremists and local Hutu murdered around 300 people. When the RPF resumed hostilities in February 1993, it cited these killings as the primary motive, but its effect was to increase support for the extremists amongst the Hutu population. From mid-1993,

19038-642: The highest levels of sexual violence in the world. According to the Human Rights Watch and the New York University-based Congo Research Group, armed troops in DRC's eastern Kivu region have killed over 1,900 civilians and kidnapped at least 3,300 people since June 2017 to June 2019. On 10 May 2018, Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his effort to end

19205-409: The identity cards prevented any further movement between the groups and made socio-economic groups into rigid ethnic groups. The ethnic identities of the Hutu and Tutsi were reshaped and mythologized by the colonizers. Christian missionaries in Rwanda promoted the theory about the " Hamitic " origins of the kingdom, and referred to the distinctively Ethiopian features and hence, foreign origins, of

19372-462: The individuals who have died are children under five years of age. There have been frequent reports of weapon bearers killing civilians, of the destruction of property, of widespread sexual violence, causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes, and of other breaches of humanitarian and human rights law. One study found that more than 400,000 women are raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo every year. In 2018 and 2019, Congo reported

19539-419: The infamous Tippu Tip , who was well known to Stanley. Leopold had designs on what was to become the Congo as a colony. In a succession of negotiations, Leopold, professing humanitarian objectives in his capacity as chairman of the front organization Association Internationale Africaine , actually played one European rival against another. King Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at

19706-407: The informant and his family and to raid the weapons caches he revealed was denied. The ICTR prosecution was unable to prove that a conspiracy to commit genocide existed prior to 7 April 1994. The supposed mastermind, Théoneste Bagosora , was acquitted of that charge in 2008, although he was convicted of genocide. André Guichaoua, an expert witness for the ICTR prosecution, noted in 2010: What

19873-509: The interim government wished to rein in the growing anarchy and engage the population in fighting the RPF. On 23 June, around 2,500 soldiers entered southwestern Rwanda as part of the French-led United Nations Opération Turquoise . This was intended as a humanitarian mission, but the soldiers were not able to save significant numbers of lives. The genocidal authorities were overtly welcoming of

20040-409: The lake. The RPF was making slow but steady gains in the north and east of the country, ending the killings in each area occupied. The genocide was effectively ended during April in areas of Ruhengeri, Byumba, Kibungo and Kigali prefectures. The killings ceased during April in the akazu heartlands of western Ruhengeri and Gisenyi, as almost every Tutsi had been eliminated. Large numbers of Hutu in

20207-521: The late 1960s, Mobutu continued to shuffle his governments and cycle officials in and out of the office to maintain control. Joseph Kasa-Vubu's death in April 1969 ensured that no person with First Republic credentials could challenge his rule. By the early 1970s, Mobutu was attempting to assert Zaire as a leading African nation. He traveled frequently across the continent while the government became more vocal about African issues, particularly those relating to

20374-415: The leaders. Tutsi and Hutu lived side by side in their villages, and families all knew each other, making it easy for Hutu to identify and target their Tutsi neighbours. Gerard Prunier ascribes this mass complicity of the population to a combination of the "democratic majority" ideology, in which Hutu had been taught to regard Tutsi as dangerous enemies, the culture of unbending obedience to authority, and

20541-430: The line of political succession, but the committee refused to recognise her authority. Roméo Dallaire met with the committee that night and insisted that Uwilingiyimana be placed in charge, but Bagosora refused, saying Uwilingiyimana did not "enjoy the confidence of the Rwandan people" and was "incapable of governing the nation". The committee also justified its existence as being essential to avoid uncertainty following

20708-579: The main targets, moderate Hutu women were also raped. Democratic Republic of the Congo DR Congo , officially the Democratic Republic of the Congo , also known as the DRC , Congo-Kinshasa or simply Congo , is a country in Central Africa . By land area, DR Congo is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world . With a population of around 109 million,

20875-478: The moderate political leadership of Rwanda was dead or in hiding, the potential for a future moderate government utterly lost." An exception to this was the new army chief of staff, Marcel Gatsinzi ; Bagosora's preferred candidate Augustin Bizimungu was rejected by the crisis committee, forcing Bagosora to agree to Gatsinzi's appointment. Gatsinzi attempted to keep the army out of the genocide, and to negotiate

21042-542: The name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kabila later requested that foreign military forces return to their own countries. Rwandan troops retreated to Goma and launched a new Tutsi-led rebel military movement called the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie to fight Kabila, while Uganda instigated the creation of a rebel movement called the Movement for the Liberation of

21209-478: The national ID card of Rwanda , which contained ethnic classifications. This enabled government forces to systematically identify and kill Tutsi. They also recruited and pressured Hutu civilians to arm themselves with machetes, clubs, blunt objects, and other weapons and encouraged them to rape, maim, and kill their Tutsi neighbors and to destroy or steal their property. The RPF restarted its offensive soon after Habyarimana's assassination. It rapidly seized control of

21376-553: The national army in exchange for the release of its imprisoned members. In 2012 Bosco Ntaganda , the leader of the CNDP, and troops loyal to him, mutinied and formed the rebel military March 23 Movement (M23), claiming the government had violated the treaty. In the resulting M23 rebellion , M23 briefly captured the provincial capital of Goma in November 2012. Neighboring countries, particularly Rwanda, have been accused of arming rebel groups and using them as proxies to gain control of

21543-403: The nature of the Bantu migrations : one theory is that the first settlers were Hutu , while the Tutsi migrated later and formed a distinct racial group, possibly of Cushitic origin. An alternative theory is that the migration was slow and steady from neighbouring regions, with incoming groups bearing high genetic similarity to the established ones, and integrating into rather than conquering

21710-442: The next three decades. Grégoire Kayibanda presided over a Hutu republic for the next decade, imposing an autocratic rule similar to the pre-revolution feudal monarchy. He was overthrown following a coup in 1973 , which brought President Juvénal Habyarimana to power. Pro-Hutu and Anti-Tutsi discrimination continued in Rwanda itself, although the indiscriminate violence against the Tutsi did decrease somewhat. Habyarimana founded

21877-661: The northern part of the country and captured Kigali about 100 days later in mid-July, bringing an end to the genocide. During these events and in the aftermath, the United Nations (UN) and countries including the United States , the United Kingdom , and Belgium were criticized for their inaction and failure to strengthen the force and mandate of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) peacekeepers. In December 2017, media reported revelations that

22044-489: The person himself/herself actually wants to do. Following the 1992 ceasefire agreement, a number of the extremists in the Rwandan government and army began actively plotting against the president, worried about the possibility of Tutsis being included in government. Habyarimana attempted to remove the hardliners from senior army positions, but was only partially successful; akazu affiliates Augustin Ndindiliyimana and Théoneste Bagosora remained in powerful posts, providing

22211-459: The planned 2016 elections, which he is constitutionally barred from participating in). This bill passed; however, it was gutted of the provision that would keep Kabila in power until a census took place. A census is supposed to take place, but it is no longer tied to when the elections take place. In 2015, elections were scheduled for late 2016 and a tenuous peace held in the Congo. On 27 November 2016 Congolese foreign minister Raymond Tshibanda told

22378-464: The pockets of rich men both in the region and internationally. There were also ethnic and cultural rivalries at play, as well as religious motives and the political crisis with postponed elections. Egeland says people believe the situation in the DRC is "stably bad" but in fact, it has become much, much worse. "The big wars of the Congo that were really on top of the agenda 15 years ago are back and worsening". Disruption in planting and harvesting caused by

22545-501: The police, the gendarmerie and the regular army. These militias were primarily recruited from the vast pool of Hutu internally displaced persons driven from their homes in the North, and claimed a total membership of 50,000 on the eve of genocide Rwanda also purchased large numbers of grenades and munitions from late 1990; in one deal, future UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali , in his role as Egyptian foreign minister, facilitated

22712-440: The preceding months, and maintained the Rwandan tradition of obedience to authority, carried out the orders without question. On the other hand, there are views that the genocide was not sudden, irresistible or uniformly orchestrated, but "a cascade of tipping points, and each tipping point was the outcome of local, intra-ethnic contests for dominance (among Hutu)". The protracted struggles for supremacy in local communes meant that

22879-472: The president's alleged "softness" with the RPF. To make the economic, social and political conflict look more like an ethnic conflict, the President's entourage, including the army, launched propaganda campaigns to fabricate events of ethnic crisis caused by the Tutsi and the RPF. The process was described as "mirror politics", also known as " accusation in a mirror " whereby a person accuses others of what

23046-472: The president's death. Bagosora sought to convince UNAMIR and the RPF that the committee was acting to contain the presidential guard, which he described as "out of control", and that it would abide by the Arusha agreement. UNAMIR sent an escort of ten Belgian soldiers to Prime Minister Uwilingiyimana, with the intention of transporting her to the Radio Rwanda offices to address the nation. This plan

23213-411: The press no elections would be held in 2016: "it has been decided that the voter registration operation will end on July 31, 2017, and that election will take place in April 2018." Protests broke out in the country on 20 December when Kabila's term in office ended. Across the country, dozens of protesters were killed and hundreds were arrested. According to Jan Egeland , presently Secretary-General of

23380-547: The promulgation of the Luluabourg Constitution on 1 August 1964, the country became the DRC but was renamed Zaire (a past name for the Congo River) on 27 October 1971 by President Mobutu Sese Seko as part of his Authenticité initiative. The word Zaire is from a Portuguese adaptation of a Kikongo word nzadi ("river"), a truncation of nzadi o nzere ("river swallowing rivers"). The river

23547-747: The provincial capital of Lubumbashi in 2013 and 400,000 persons displaced in the province as of 2013 . On and off fighting in the Ituri conflict occurred between the Nationalist and Integrationist Front and the Union of Congolese Patriots who claimed to represent the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups, respectively. In the northeast, Joseph Kony 's Lord's Resistance Army moved from their original bases in Uganda and South Sudan to DR Congo in 2005 and set up camps in

23714-449: The public anger at Ndadaye's murder, as well as RTLM propaganda and the traditional obedience of Rwandans to authority. The Power leaders began arming the interahamwe and other militia groups with AK-47s and other weapons; previously, they had possessed only machetes and traditional hand weapons. On 11 January 1994, General Roméo Dallaire , commander of UNAMIR , sent his "Genocide Fax" to UN Headquarters. The fax stated that Dallaire

23881-402: The radio broadcasts were accessible to Rwanda's largely rural population of farmers. The format of the broadcasts mirrored Western-style radio talk shows that played popular music, hosted interviews, and encouraged audience participation. The broadcasters told crude jokes and used offensive language that contrasted strongly with Radio Rwanda's more formal news reports. Just 1.52% of RTLM's airtime

24048-609: The rebellion of Laurent-Desire Kabila that overthrew the Mobutu regime." In September 1997, Mobutu died in exile in Morocco. By 1996, following the Rwandan Civil War and genocide and the ascension of a Tutsi -led government in Rwanda, Rwandan Hutu militia forces ( Interahamwe ) fled to eastern Zaire and used refugee camps as bases for incursions against Rwanda. They allied with the Zairian Armed Forces to launch

24215-680: The resource-rich country, an accusation they deny. In March 2013, the United Nations Security Council authorized the United Nations Force Intervention Brigade to neutralize armed groups. On 5 November 2013, M23 declared an end to its insurgency. Additionally, in northern Katanga , the Mai-Mai created by Laurent Kabila slipped out of the control of Kinshasa with Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga 's Mai Mai Kata Katanga briefly invading

24382-503: The ruling party contained a Power wing, consisting of those who opposed Habyarimana's intention to sign a peace deal. Several radical youth militia groups emerged, attached to the Power wings of the parties; these included the Interahamwe ("those who stand together"), which was attached to the ruling party, and the CDR's Impuzamugambi ("those who have the same goal"). The youth militia began actively carrying out massacres across

24549-562: The sexual violence, as well as the complicity of Hutu women in the attacks, suggests that the use of propaganda had been effective in the exploitation of gendered needs which had mobilized both females and males to participate. Soldiers of the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda and the Rwandan Defence Forces , including the Presidential Guard, and civilians also committed rape against mostly Tutsi women. Although Tutsi women were

24716-566: The south and southwest were foraging groups, whose technology involved only minimal use of metal technologies. The development of metal tools during this time period revolutionized agriculture. This led to the displacement of the African pygmies . Following the Bantu migrations, a period of state and class formation began circa 700 with three centres in the modern-day territory; one to the west around Pool Malebo , one east around Lake Mai-Ndombe , and

24883-519: The southern region. Zaire established semi-clientelist relationships with several smaller African states, especially Burundi, Chad, and Togo. Corruption became so common the term " le mal Zairois " or "Zairian sickness", meaning gross corruption, theft and mismanagement, was coined, reportedly by Mobutu. International aid, most often in the form of loans, enriched Mobutu while he allowed national infrastructure such as roads to deteriorate to as little as one-quarter of what had existed in 1960. Zaire became

25050-559: The spot: "Either you took part in the massacres or you were massacred yourself." One such massacre occurred at Nyarubuye . On 12 April, more than 1,500 Tutsi sought refuge in a Catholic church in Nyange, then in Kivumu commune. Local Interahamwe, acting in concert with the authorities, used bulldozers to knock down the church building. The militia used machetes and rifles to kill every person who tried to escape. Local priest Athanase Seromba

25217-645: The spread of automobiles and development of rubber tires created a growing international market. Rubber sales made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honor himself and his country. To enforce the rubber quotas, the Force Publique was called in and made the practice of cutting off the limbs of the natives a matter of policy. Under the Congo Free State concessions were granted to private industry, granting

25384-536: The terms of the 1991 constitution instead of the Arusha Accords, the committee designated Théodore Sindikubwabo as interim president of Rwanda, while Jean Kambanda was the new prime minister. All political parties were represented in the government, but most members were from the "Hutu Power" wings of their respective parties. The interim government was sworn in on 9 April, but relocated from Kigali to Gitarama on 12 April, ostensibly fleeing RPF's advance on

25551-435: The territory, which thus became a Belgian colony . Congo achieved independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960 and was immediately confronted by a series of secessionist movements , the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba , and the seizure of power by Mobutu Sese Seko in a 1965 coup d'état . Mobutu renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and imposed a harsh personalist dictatorship until his overthrow in 1997 by

25718-402: The two, the former Belgian Congo became known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DR Congo ), while the former French colony retained the name 'Republic of the Congo' ( Congo ). Shortly after independence the Force Publique mutinied, and on 11 July the province of Katanga (led by Moïse Tshombe ) and South Kasai engaged in secessionist struggles against the new leadership. Most of

25885-527: The use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict . In 2015, major protests broke out across the country and protesters demanded that Kabila step down as president. The protests began after the passage of a law by the Congolese lower house that, if also passed by the Congolese upper house, would keep Kabila in power at least until a national census was conducted (a process which would likely take several years and therefore keep him in power past

26052-517: Was an exception to the local violence. Jean-Baptiste Habyalimana was the only Tutsi prefect, and the prefecture was the only one dominated by an opposition party. Opposing the genocide, Habyalimana was able to keep relative calm in the prefecture, until he was deposed by the extremist Sylvain Nsabimana. Finding the population of Butare resistant to murdering their citizens, the government flew in militia from Kigali by helicopter, and they readily killed

26219-557: Was canceled because the presidential guard took over the radio station shortly afterward and would not permit Uwilingiyimana to speak on air. Later in the morning, a number of soldiers and a crowd of civilians overwhelmed the Belgians guarding Uwilingiyimana, forcing them to surrender their weapons. Uwilingiyimana and her husband were killed, although their children survived by hiding behind furniture and were rescued by Senegalese UNAMIR officer Mbaye Diagne . The ten Belgians were taken to

26386-445: Was dedicated to news, while 66.29% of airtime featured the journalists discussing their thoughts on different subjects. As the start of the genocide approached, the RTLM broadcasts focused on anti-Tutsi propaganda. They characterized the Tutsi as a dangerous enemy who wanted to seize the political power at the expense of Hutus. By linking the Rwandan Patriotic Army with the Tutsi political party and ordinary Tutsi citizens, they classified

26553-441: Was facilitated using roadblocks manned by military and interahamwe; each person passing the roadblock was required to show the national identity card, which included ethnicity, and any with Tutsi cards were killed immediately. Many Hutu were also killed for a variety of reasons, including alleged sympathy for the moderate opposition parties, being a journalist or simply having a "Tutsi appearance". Thousands of bodies were dumped into

26720-475: Was in contact with "a top level trainer in the cadre of Interhamwe-armed [ sic ] militia of MRND ." The informant—now known to be Mathieu Ngirumpatse 's chauffeur, Kassim Turatsinze, a.k.a. "Jean-Pierre"—claimed to have been ordered to register all Tutsi in Kigali. According to the memo, Turatsinze suspected that a genocide against the Tutsis was being planned, and he said that "in 20 minutes his personnel could kill up to 1000 Tutsis". Dallaire's request to protect

26887-548: Was known as Zaire during the 16th and 17th centuries; Congo seems to have replaced Zaire gradually in English usage during the 18th century, and Congo is the preferred English name in 19th-century literature, although references to Zaire as the name used by the natives (i.e., derived from Portuguese usage) remained common. In 1992, the Sovereign National Conference voted to change the name of

27054-575: Was later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison by the ICTR for his role in the demolition of his church; he was convicted of the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity . In another case, thousands sought refuge in the Official Technical School ( École technique officielle ) in Kigali where Belgian UNAMIR soldiers were stationed. On 11 April, the Belgian soldiers withdrew, and Rwandan armed forces and militia killed all

27221-485: Was marked by extreme violence, with victims often murdered by neighbors, and widespread sexual violence, with between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped. 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

27388-627: Was no longer deemed necessary as a Cold War ally. Opponents within Zaire stepped up demands for reform. This atmosphere contributed to Mobutu's declaring the Third Republic in 1990, whose constitution was supposed to pave the way for democratic reform. The reforms turned out to be largely cosmetic. Mobutu continued in power until armed forces forced him to flee in 1997. "From 1990 to 1993, the United States facilitated Mobutu's attempts to hijack political change", one academic wrote, and "also assisted

27555-534: Was ranked 179th out of 191 countries by the Human Development Index and is classed as a least developed country by the UN . As of 2018 , following two decades of various civil wars and continued internal conflicts , around 600,000 Congolese refugees were still living in neighbouring countries. Two million children risk starvation, and the fighting has displaced 4.5 million people. The country

27722-459: Was ruled by the only Tutsi prefect in the country, Jean-Baptiste Habyalimana . Habyalimana refused to authorise any killings in his territory, and for a while Butare became a sanctuary for Tutsi refugees from elsewhere in the country. This lasted until 18 April, when the interim government dismissed him from his post and replaced him with government loyalist Sylvain Nsabimana . The crisis committee appointed an interim government on 8 April; using

27889-422: Was the only candidate. Although relative peace and stability were achieved, Mobutu's government was guilty of severe human rights violations, political repression , a cult of personality and corruption . By late 1967 Mobutu had successfully neutralized his political opponents and rivals, either through co-opting them into his regime, arresting them, or rendering them otherwise politically impotent. Throughout

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