What was the Rwandan genocide?
The Rwandan genocide (April–July 1994) was the systematic murder of approximately 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu by Hutu extremists over roughly 100 days in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Organized by political and military leaders and carried out by ordinary citizens using machetes and clubs, it was one of the fastest and most efficient mass killings in history, while the international community stood by.
The Rwandan genocide was one of the most devastating failures of humanity in the modern era — a meticulously organized campaign of mass murder carried out with terrifying speed while the world watched and did nothing. Its lessons about ethnic hatred, state power, media manipulation, and international inaction remain urgently relevant.
The roots lay in colonial manipulation of Rwandan society. Belgian colonizers had hardened the distinction between Hutu and Tutsi — originally fluid social categories — into rigid racial identities, issuing identity cards and favoring Tutsis for education and administrative positions. After independence in 1962, power shifted to the Hutu majority, and periodic anti-Tutsi violence drove hundreds of thousands into exile. An invasion by the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from Uganda in 1990 triggered a civil war and intensified Hutu extremist rhetoric.
The genocide was not spontaneous — it was planned. Hutu Power extremists within the government and military stockpiled weapons, trained militias (the Interahamwe), compiled lists of Tutsi and moderate Hutu targets, and used Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines to broadcast hate propaganda, dehumanizing Tutsis as 'cockroaches' (inyenzi) who needed to be exterminated. When President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down on April 6, 1994, the killing began within hours — evidence of extensive preparation.
The speed and scale were horrifying. Over approximately 100 days, an estimated 800,000 people were killed — roughly 10,000 per day. Much of the killing was carried out by ordinary Hutu civilians using machetes, clubs, and agricultural tools, often against neighbors they had known for years. Churches and schools where Tutsis sought refuge became massacre sites. Women were systematically raped. The social fabric of an entire nation was torn apart.
The international response was catastrophic failure. The United Nations had a peacekeeping force in Rwanda (UNAMIR), but its commander, Romeo Dallaire, was denied authorization and reinforcements to intervene. The United States, scarred by the Somalia debacle, actively worked to prevent the word 'genocide' from being used, as its legal designation would have compelled action. France had supported the Hutu-led government. The killing ended only when the RPF, led by Paul Kagame, defeated the genocidal government militarily in July 1994. The genocide forced a global reckoning with the hollow promise of 'never again' and led to reforms in international humanitarian intervention, though their effectiveness remains debated.