Key Idea: In just 100 days in 1994, extremist leaders from Rwanda's Hutu majority organised the mass murder of around 800,000 people, most of them from the Tutsi minority. This was not a sudden explosion of hatred. It grew from division built under Belgian colonial rule, the fear and war unleashed when Tutsi rebels invaded in 1990, and the propaganda and planning of extremists — set off by the shooting-down of the president's plane on 6 April 1994. The killing only stopped when a rebel army won, and its shockwaves reshaped Central Africa for years.
🔥 5.1.1 — Why the genocide happened
Rwanda is a small country in central Africa. Its two main groups, the Hutu (about 85% of people) and the Tutsi minority, shared the same language, religion and villages — but European rulers, first Germany and then Belgium, hardened them into separate, unequal 'races'. In the 1930s the Belgians gave everyone an identity card fixing them as Hutu or Tutsi for life, which later made people easy to hunt down.
A useful way to remember the causes is D-W-P: Division from colonial rule, War and fear from 1990, and Propaganda and planning by extremists. When Tutsi refugees in the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) invaded from Uganda on 1 October 1990, the government painted all Tutsi as enemies, and extremists began preparing for mass murder.
- Colonial division: Belgium favoured the Tutsi and issued 1930s identity cards that labelled everyone for life.
- Hutu rule after 1962: at independence power flipped to the Hutu; Tutsi faced discrimination and many fled abroad.
- Civil war (1990): the RPF invaded from Uganda, letting the government brand all Tutsi as traitors; falling coffee prices deepened anger.
- Propaganda & planning: the radio station RTLM and newspaper Kangura called Tutsi 'cockroaches'; the Interahamwe militia was armed and death lists drawn up.
- The trigger: on 6 April 1994 President Juvénal Habyarimana's plane was shot down over Kigali, and extremists launched the planned killings.
🌍 5.1.2 — The course and the failed interventions
Hold on to this spine: war (1990) → peace deal (1993) → genocide (1994). In August 1993 the government and RPF signed the Arusha Accords to share power, and the UN sent a small, weakly-armed peacekeeping force, UNAMIR, led by Canadian General Roméo Dallaire. When the president's plane was shot down on 6 April 1994, the killing began the very next day.
The hard truth is that the outside world had the warnings and the troops to act, but held back. Dallaire warned the UN in advance and was told not to act; after ten Belgian peacekeepers were murdered, the UN cut UNAMIR instead of reinforcing it. The killing only ended in July 1994 when the RPF, led by Paul Kagame, won the war and captured Kigali.
- UNAMIR / Dallaire: warned early, then was ordered to stand down and shrink — willing but blocked and abandoned.
- The USA & great powers: stung by losses in Somalia (1993), refused to lead and avoided the word 'genocide' to dodge a duty to act.
- France — Opération Turquoise (June 1994): a UN-approved 'safe zone' in the south-west that sheltered some civilians but also let killers escape.
- The RPF (Kagame): the force that actually stopped the genocide by capturing Kigali in July 1994.
- Aftermath: about two million Hutu, many of them killers, then fled abroad — the violence outlasted 1994.
🕊️ 5.1.3 — The impact of the genocide
The genocide's effects reach far past the killing itself. Remember them as five kinds of impact: Human loss, Refugee crisis, Political change, Justice, and Regional war. Some hit at once in 1994; others played out over the years that followed.
As the RPF advanced, around two million Hutu fled — huge camps sprang up at Goma in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), where a cholera outbreak killed tens of thousands more. Those camps became bases for armed Hutu raiders, and Rwanda's push to break them up in 1996 helped ignite the First Congo War, which toppled Zaire's ruler Mobutu in 1997. One country's genocide had helped start a war next door.
- Human cost: about 800,000 killed in 100 days, mostly Tutsi and moderate Hutu, leaving Rwanda traumatised.
- Refugee crisis: ~2 million Hutu fled, mainly to Goma; a cholera outbreak killed tens of thousands.
- New government: the RPF took power in July 1994 and Paul Kagame became the country's real leader.
- Justice: the UN set up the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania (November 1994); Rwanda revived village gacaca courts for the huge backlog of cases.
- Regional war: spillover into Zaire sparked the First Congo War (1996–97), which overthrew Mobutu.
✍️ Exam-ready answers
'Hate propaganda was the main cause of the Rwandan genocide.' Using your own knowledge, evaluate this claim.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
A source is a 1994 RTLM radio broadcast urging Hutu listeners to attack their Tutsi neighbours. With reference to its origin, purpose and content, assess its value and limitations for a historian studying the causes of the genocide.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
🎯 One-glance recall
Why it happened (D-W-P + trigger) Belgian division and 1930s identity cards, the 1990 RPF invasion and civil war, plus RTLM/Kangura propaganda and the Interahamwe — set off when Habyarimana's plane was shot down on 6 April 1994.
The course and the world's failure War (1990) → Arusha Accords (1993) → genocide (1994). UNAMIR under Dallaire was ignored and cut, the USA avoided the word 'genocide', France's Opération Turquoise came late, and the RPF under Kagame ended it in July 1994.
The impact ~800,000 killed in 100 days; ~2 million refugees and a cholera outbreak at Goma; a new RPF government; justice through the ICTR and gacaca courts; and spillover into the First Congo War (1996–97) that toppled Mobutu.
Exam moves The 9-mark question needs a judgement, not a list — argue both sides and decide. For 4-mark source questions, tie every value and limitation to origin, purpose or content (OPVL). Keep sharp facts ready: 800,000 dead, 6 April 1994, UNAMIR, ICTR.