Before the RPF Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, with over 14 million people living in a comparatively small territory of 26,338 square kilometers. Unlike other African countries, the current state of Rwanda was partly based on the pre-colonial
Kingdom of Rwanda, governed by a
Tutsi monarchy. When the European
colonialists arrived in Rwanda (Germans from 1899 to 1916 and Belgians from 1916 to 1962), the country lost all political, economic, and cultural independence. The colonial rulers chose Rwanda's leaders and set laws that suited their interests. The colonial rulers employed a divide-and-conquer strategy, spreading the idea that
Rwandans: • Came from different places • Did not enter the nation as a group • Lacked equal intelligence • Shouldn't work in the same fields • Should not receive the same education This strategy increased divisions between Tutsi,
Hutu, and
Batwa. In the early 1950s, Rwandans fought for their independence alongside other African countries. Since Tutsis made up the majority of those who fought for Rwanda's independence, the Belgians started to propagate the idea that Tutsis were outsiders who had originated in
Abyssinia or modern-day
Ethiopia.
Rwandese Alliance for National Unity The
Rwandese Alliance for National Unity (
RANU) was created in December 1979 in
Nairobi, Kenya, by young Rwandan Tutsi refugee intellectuals, most of whom had grown up in Uganda. The RANU political organization was established to discuss a possible return to Rwanda. Though primarily a forum for intellectual discussion, it became militant after
Milton Obote's
election in 1980, resulting in many Tutsi refugees joining
Yoweri Museveni in fighting the
Ugandan Bush War. Following
the overthrow of
Idi Amin in 1979, Obote denounced Museveni's
National Resistance Army (NRA) as being composed of
Banyarwanda. Subsequently, a failed attempt to force all Rwandan refugees into refugee camps in February 1982 resulted in a massive purge, driving 40,000 refugees back into Rwanda. Rwanda declared that they recognized only 4,000 of these as Rwandan nationals, while Uganda declared that they would take back only 1,000. The remaining 35,000 were left in a legal limbo along the border region for years, and many refugee youths left to join the
National Resistance Army.
RPF founding After the
Museveni government was formed in 1986,
Fred Rwigema, a Rwandan refugee commander, was appointed Uganda's deputy minister of defense and deputy
army commander-in-chief, second only to Museveni in the military
chain of command for Uganda.
Paul Kagame was appointed acting chief of military intelligence. A large number of NRA officers were Rwandan refugees because they had joined the rebellion early, and thus had accumulated more experience. The contributions of the Rwandans in the Ugandan Bush War were immediately recognized by the new government. Six months after taking power, Museveni reversed the decades-old legal regime and declared that Rwandans who had resided in Uganda would be entitled to citizenship after 10 years. In December 1987, RANU held its seventh congress in
Kampala and renamed itself the
Rwandan Patriotic Front (
RPF). Its principles include "Unity, Sovereignty and Security, Economy, Democratic Leadership, Fighting Corruption, Eliminating All Causes of Refugee Status, International Relations, Social Welfare, and Fighting Genocide and Its Ideology". Dominated by exiled Rwandan intellectuals and military officers, this new RPF was significantly stronger and more ambitious than RANU had been.
Rwandan Civil War On 1 October 1990, the Rwandan government led by
Juvénal Habyarimana with
the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) party which was known to rule with pro-Hutu policies, was invaded by the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA), the military wing of RPF led by Major-General
Fred Gisa Rwigema, initiating the
Rwandan Civil War. The RPA incursion was initially successful, despite the death of
Fred Rwigema the following day.
Paul Kagame, who had been doing military studies in the United States, returned to take over the RPA. Thereafter the RPA resorted to
guerrilla attacks, focusing on the
Byumba and
Ruhengeri areas, gaining control of much of the north of the country in 1992. Negotiations between the RPF and the Rwandan government led to the signing of the
Arusha Accords in 1993, resulting in RPF personnel and other refugees being allowed to return to the country.
1994 genocide in Rwanda On 6 April 1994, President
Juvénal Habyarimana's
plane was shot down near
Kigali International Airport, killing him and
Cyprien Ntaryamira, the President of
Burundi. The assassination was likely perpetrated by either Hutu extremists or the RPF. The downing of the plane served as the catalyst for the
Rwandan genocide, which began within a few hours. Over approximately 100 days, more than 500,000 Tutsi were killed and an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 women were raped. The RPF invaded Rwanda with its military wing, fighting government forces and gradually taking control of the country. The Rwandan genocide was completely stopped when
Kigali was captured by the RPF army on 4 July.
Post-1994 genocide in Rwanda governance After the RPF stopped the genocide and took control of the country, in 1994, it formed a government of headed by president
Pasteur Bizimungu. The vice president and de-facto leader of the RPF,
Paul Kagame, became Minister of Defense and vice-president. President Bizimungu served for six years and resigned from government in 2000. He formed his political party, the Party for Democratic Renewal, in 2001 and was arrested in 2002. Having received a 15-year prison sentence for crimes including inciting ethnic violence and embezzlement, Bizimungu was released with a pardon from President Kagame in 2007. In February 1998 Kagame was elected president of the RPF, replacing
Alexis Kanyarengwe, and in March 2000 he became the national president. Following a
constitutional referendum in 2003, Kagame was
elected president with 95% of the vote. The RPF formed a coalition with several smaller parties, which received 74% of the vote in the
2003 parliamentary elections, winning 40 of the 53 elected seats in the
Chamber of Deputies. The coalition won 42 seats in the
2008 parliamentary elections, and Kagame was
re-elected as president in 2010 with 93% of the vote. The
2013 parliamentary elections saw the RPF-led coalition win 41 seats. In 2017, Kagame was re-elected for a third term with 98.8 percent of the vote. He was sworn in for another seven-year term on 18 August 2017, and again in 2024. In the post-genocide era, RPF as a ruling party established Rwanda's national unity and
democratic government. Under the three consecutive Kagame presidencies, the
Rwandan government has developed various national programs to improve infrastructure and facilitate justice in the wake of the genocide, including
community work holidays (Umuganda) and
gacaca courts. == Leadership ==