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Tension In Rwanda

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Rwanda is a nation built on three major ethnic groups and a prolonged ethnic tension over the course of history. The main cause of the tension was the strained relationship between the Hutus and the Tutsis, the two major ethnic groups of Rwanda. The hostility between the two groups became strong circa the beginning of World War I. The Belgians ruled Rwanda and they preferred the Tutsi minority, causing ethnic tension between the Hutus and the Tutsis right off the bat. The Hutus took action and lead several attacks on the Tutsis, trying to drive a large percentage of the Tutsi population into exile. The attempts were successful enough for the Hutus to gain Rwandan independence in 1962 and replace the monarchy the Tutsis created with a republic. …show more content…

The antagonism between the two groups was put on hold by the creation of the Arusha Accords, an agreement for a transition in government where the RPF has a role. However, the loathing never died for the Hutus and they were looking for any opportunity to seek revenge for the Tutsis. The airplane of the president Cyprien Ntaryamira, a Hutu, flew over Kigali and was shot down. Cyprien Ntaryamira did not survive the crash, and the Hutus took this as a reason to attack. The first killings, marking the start of the Rwandan Genocide, began an hour after the Hutu president's plane got shot down, and the mass killings went on for about 3 months. According to SURF Survivor's Fund, an estimated 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis and some moderate Hutus were slaughtered over the course of the one hundred day genocide (Statistics of the Genocide). However, the Rwandan Genocide should have been easy to predict when reflecting on the numerous Tutsi assaults in the past. All attacks that took place in Rwanda after World War I climaxed to the Rwandan Genocide, which is frequently known as the most imperative massacre in the history of Rwanda, and each assault building up to it possessed a secret plea from the Tutsis to other countries in hopes of assistance to help defend against the

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