The Rwandan civil war and genocide in 1994 greatly harmed and exacerbated its economic development and poverty, respectively. The tensions between the Hutu and Tutsis (the 2 ethnic groups in Rwanda) leading up to the civil war started back in 1962, when the then dominant Tutsi were overthrown by the Hutu, who had greater numbers. In the 1990's, the tensions had grown so much that the UN sent 2500 soldiers as a peacekeeping force to try and stop further escalation. In April of 1994, The Rwandan president, along with another president, were assassinated during a plane crash. The Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi's for this event, and began targeting all Tutsi's and anybody supporting them, including their own Hutu politicians. The killings got so severe that the UN chose to pull out what was left of
... read more