CountryWatch


Rwanda Flag    
Rwanda

Select Country

View Our News Archive
 

Country Profile

Rwanda is a landlocked country in Eastern Africa. Tutsi cattle breeders began arriving in the area in the 15th century and gradually subjugated the Hutu inhabitants. The areas of present-day Rwanda and Burundi became part of German East Africa in the 1890s. In 1919, following World War I, the region was mandated to Belgium as the territory of Ruanda-Urundi. Following World War II, Ruanda-Urundi became a UN Trust Territory with Belgium as the administrative authority. In 1959, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Two years later, the Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement (PARMEHUTU) won an overwhelming victory in the UN-supervised referendum. A 1962 UN General Assembly resolution terminated the Belgian trusteeship and granted full independence to Rwanda (and Burundi). During the 1959 revolt and its aftermath, more than 160,000 Tutsis fled to 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 the genocide of roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the killing in July 1994. Some two million Hutus fled to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), including some of those responsible for the massacres. The international community responded with one of the largest humanitarian relief efforts ever mounted, including the United Nations peacekeeping operation that remained in Rwanda until March 1996. By late 1996 most of the refugees returned to Rwanda. Rwanda has used traditional "gacaca" community courts to try those suspected of taking part in the 1994 genocide. But key individuals - particularly those accused of orchestrating the slaughter - appear before an International Criminal Tribunal in northern Tanzania. Rwanda is a poor rural country with about 80 percent of the population engaged in mainly subsistence agriculture. Coffee and tea serve as its primary sources of export earnings. The decline of world coffee prices, the lack of economic diversification, corruption, and economic mismanagement all contributed to Rwanda's economic deterioration in the early 1990s. The 1994 genocide further damaged Rwanda's fragile economic base. Following the 1994 genocide, Rwanda undertook an extraordinary national regeneration program, and considerable progress has been made in stabilizing and recovering the economy.


 

 
Country Forecast
Major Cities
City Population Estimated
Kigali 965,398 2009
Ruhengeri 110,717 2009
Gisenyi 106,335 2009
Key Data
Region : Africa
Population : 9,089,001
Area Total : 26,340 km2
Area Land : 24,950 km2
Coast Line : km
Capital : Kigali
Climate : Temperate; two rainy seasons (February to April, November to January); mild in mountains with frost and snow possible.
Languages : Kinyarwanda
French
Kiswahili used in commercial centers
Currency : 1 Rwandan franc (RF$) = 100 centimes
Holiday : Independence Day is 1 July (1962), Kamarampaka Day is 25 September (1961)
Average Daily TemperatureBoundaries
January : 19.40°C / 67.00°F
July : 21.10°C / 70.00°F
Annual Rainfall : 1016mm / 40"
   
 
Burundi 290km
Tanzania 217km
Congo (DRC) 217km
Uganda 169km
Ethnic DivisionsReligions
Hutu 84%
Tutsi 12%
Twa (pygmoid) 3%
Other 1%
 
Roman Catholic 65%
indigenous beliefs and other 25%
Protestant 9%
Muslim 1%

HOME    |     ABOUT US    |     ORDER    |     CONTACT US    |     HELP    |     FAQ
© Copyright   2010 CountryWatch, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
No portion of CountryWatch content can ever be reproduced or republished without expressed written consent from CountryWatch’s Editor in Chief.