Rwanda nation profile – BBC Information

Rwanda, a small landlocked nation in east-central Africa, is attempting to get well from the ethnic strife that culminated in government-sponsored genocide within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.

An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and reasonable Hutus have been killed by dominant Hutu forces in 100 days.

Rwanda has striven to rebuild its economic system, with espresso and tea manufacturing amongst its primary exports, and financial growth has helped scale back poverty and inequality.

Paul Kagame grew to become president in 2000 and has successfully run Rwanda since 1994. Whereas his authorities has maintained stability and financial progress, the US-based NGO Freedom Home says it has additionally suppressed political dissent via intimidation, torture and suspected assassinations of exiled dissidents.

Paul Kagame has run Rwanda since his insurgent Rwandan Patriotic Entrance (RPF)military gained management of the nation after the slaughter of a whole lot of hundreds of individuals in 1994.

He was sworn in as vice-president and defence minister within the post-genocide authorities in July 1994, however was broadly seen as the actual energy in Rwanda.

In 2000 parliament elected him president and he has received elections ever since. Within the July 2024 election President Kagame received a landslide victory. Nevertheless, as in earlier votes he confronted no significant opposition with main figures banned.

His critics say he’s an authoritarian despot who tolerates no opposition who has curtailed freedoms since taking workplace. His supporters say he’s a visionary chief who has presided over financial progress and helped finish ethnic divisions.

State TV and radio attain the most important audiences and function alongside privately-owned retailers.

Self-censorship is commonplace, says Reporters With out Borders. Exile journalists function on-line, prompting web site blocking, says Freedom Home.

Some key dates within the historical past of Rwanda:

Fifteenth-Nineteenth Centuries – Clans within the space start to merge into kingdoms. Considered one of these, the Kingdom of Rwanda turns into more and more dominant from the mid-18th Century, reaching its best extent within the Nineteenth Century.

1884 – Berlin Convention sees partition of a lot of Africa by European colonial powers, following which Rwanda turns into a part of German East Africa.

1914-1918 – World Battle One.

1914-18 – World Battle One: East African marketing campaign see German forces defeated by British, Belgian and allied troops. Belgian military occupies each Burundi and Rwanda in 1916.

1922 – Ruanda-Urundi turns into a Belgian League of Nations mandate.

Each the Germans and the Belgians promote Tutsi supremacy, contemplating the Hutu and Tutsi completely different races.

1935 – Belgium introduces an id card system, labelling folks as both Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or naturalised.

1959-62 – The Rwandan Revolution: ethnic violence in Rwanda between Hutus and Tutsis. Tutsi King Kigeri V and hundreds of Tutsis go into exile in Uganda following the violence.

1962 – Rwanda and Burundi develop into unbiased as separate nations. Rwanda, which had been a Tutsi monarchy beneath Belgian colonial authority is now an unbiased Hutu-dominated republic.

1963 – About 20,000 Tutsis are killed following an incursion by Tutsi rebels primarily based in Burundi. Combating between the 2 ethnic teams continues intermittently over the following three many years.

1973 – Juvénal Habyarimana seizes energy in a navy coup.

1990-1994 – Rwandan civil warfare. The insurgent Rwandan Patriotic Entrance (RPF) comprising Tutsi refugees, invades northern Rwanda from Uganda. The RPF condemns the Hutu-dominated authorities for failing to democratize.

1993 – Peace treaty signed.

1994 – Ceasefire ends when Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundi’s President Cyprien Ntaryamira are killed when their plane is shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Most theories say the plane was shot down both by the RPF or government-aligned Hutu followers against talks with the RPF.

Mr Habyarimana’s loss of life triggers the Rwandan genocide, perpetrated primarily by Hutus towards Tutsis and reasonable Hutus. About 800,000 individuals are killed.

1996-2003 – Rwanda’s invasion of DR Congo marks the start of its prolonged involvement within the neighbouring nation’s two civil wars.

2003 – Voters again a draft structure which bans the incitement of ethnic hatred. Paul Kagame wins the primary presidential elections for the reason that 1994 genocide.

2005 – Authorities begins the mass launch of hundreds who confessed to involvement within the 1994 genocide. Rwanda’s 12 provinces are changed by a smaller variety of areas with the goal of making ethnically-diverse administrative areas.

2015 – The Worldwide Legal Tribunal for Rwanda holds its final hearings, 10 years after opening, and having convicted 93 people in reference to the 1994 genocide.

2022 – DR Congo, UN, US and others accuse Rwanda of sending its troopers to battle alongside M23 rebels in jap DR Congo, who face accusations of carrying warfare crimes towards civilians. Rwanda denies this.

Conservative UK authorities and Rwanda comply with ship some UK asylum seekers to Rwanda, amid appreciable opposition within the UK.

2024 – UK’s Labour authorities axes Rwanda asylum scheme. Authorized challenges meant no asylum seekers have been despatched to Rwanda.