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 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, and began a civil war in 1990. The war,
along with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic
tensions, culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of roughly 800,000 Tutsis
and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the
killing in July 1994, but 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. Despite
substantial international assistance and political reforms - including
Rwanda’s first local elections in March 1999 - the country continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural
output and to foster reconciliation. A series of massive population displacements, a nagging Hutu extremist
insurgency, and Rwandan involvement in two wars over the past four years in the neighboring DROC continue
to hinder Rwanda’s efforts.
Population: 7,810,056; Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa Note: estimates for this country
explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy,
higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2003 est.)
Location: Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo
Climate: temperate; two rainy seasons (February to April, November to January); mild in mountains with frost and
snow possible
Religions: Roman Catholic 56.5%, Protestant 26%, Adventist 11.1%, Muslim 4.6%, indigenous beliefs 0.1%,
none 1.7% (2001)
Languages: Kinyarwanda (official) universal Bantu vernacular, French (official), English (official),
Kiswahili (Swahili) used in commercial centers
Currency: Rwandan franc (RWF)
HIV/AIDS: adult prevalence rate: 8.9% (2001 est.); people living with HIV/AIDS: 500,000 (2001 est.);
deaths: 49,000 (2001 est.) |
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