Rwanda
In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in a state-orchestrated genocide, in which Rwandans killed up to a million of their fellow citizens, including approximately three-quarters of the Tutsi population. The genocide ended later that same year when the predominantly Tutsi RPF, operating out of Uganda and northern Rwanda, defeated the national army and Hutu militias, and established an RPF-led government of national unity. Approximately 2 million Hutu refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but several thousand remained in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC; the former Zaire) and formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF tried in 1990. Rwanda held its first local elections in 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in 2003. Rwanda in 2009 staged a joint military operation with the Congolese Army in DRC to rout out the Hutu extremist insurgency there and Kigali and Kinshasa restored diplomatic relations. Rwanda also joined the Commonwealth in late 2009.
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| Development Gateway - Rwanda Foundation provides a portal for resources, activity database, project information, business opportunities, recent notices and publications. - Read more http://www.rwandagateway.org |
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| Official Website of the Government of Rwanda Official government site provides news and information about the government, economy, tourism, history and geography. - Read more http://www.gov.rw |
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| National Bank of Rwanda Information on bank supervision and monetary policy in English and French. - Read more http://www.bnr.rw |
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| Welcome to Rwanda - Discover a New African Dawn Features information about travelling to and around the country, showing information about national parks, mountain gorillas, primates, accommodation, ... - Read more http://www.rwandatourism.com |
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| Embassy of Rwanda, Washington, D.C. Inhabitants of Rwanda are called "Banyarwanda". They speak the same language, have the same culture, live on the same hills and, for centuries, ... - Read more http://www.rwandemb.org |
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