1.
Kigali
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Kigali, with a population of more than 1 million, is the capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is situated near the centre of the nation. The city has been the economic, cultural, and transport hub of Rwanda since it became capital at independence in 1962, the main residence and offices of the President of Rwanda are located in the city, as are the government ministries. The city is coterminous with the province of Kigali City, which was enlarged in January 2006, kigalis city limits covers the whole province, it is consolidated. The citys urban area covers about 70% of the municipal boundaries, Kigali was founded in 1907 by Dr. Richard Kandt under German colonial rule, but did not become the capital until Rwandan independence in 1962. The traditional capital was the seat of the mwami in Nyanza, while the seat of power was in Butare. Butare was initially the leading contender to be the capital of the new independent nation, since then the city has grown very quickly and is now the major political, economic and cultural centre of Rwanda. Beginning on April 6,1994, Kigali was the scene of the Rwandan Genocide – the slaughter of one million Tutsi by Hutu militias. There was fierce fighting between the army and Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front, although damaged, the citys structure has recovered. The city is built in country, sprawling across about four ridges. The city centre is located on one of these ridges, with the government area on another. The tops of the ridges have an elevation of 1,600 metres or 5,250 feet. The bigger houses and office buildings tend to be on the tops of the ridges, the city is ringed most of the way round by higher hills, with some suburban sprawl rising up these. The highest of these is Mt. Kigali, with an elevation of 1,850 metres or 6,070 feet above sea level, Kigali possesses a tropical savanna climate with a pronounced dry season, the Köppen Climate Classification subtype being Aw. Kigali houses several memorials, museums, and centers dedicated to the Rwandan Genocide, other museums include the Kandt House Museum of Natural History. Urugwiro is the residence of the President of Rwanda. It constitutes a village within the Kacyiru district of Kigali. The city has international class hotels, some played a role in history and this hotel became a refugee centre during the genocide, as famously depicted in the film Hotel Rwanda
2.
Rwanda
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Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a sovereign state in central and east Africa and one of the smallest countries on the African mainland. Located a few south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi. Rwanda is in the African Great Lakes region and is elevated, its geography is dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two seasons and two dry seasons each year. The population is young and predominantly rural, with a density among the highest in Africa, Rwandans are drawn from just one cultural and linguistic group, the Banyarwanda, although within this group there are three subgroups, the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The Twa are a pygmy people descended from Rwandas earliest inhabitants. Christianity is the largest religion in the country, the language is Kinyarwanda, spoken by most Rwandans, with English. Rwanda has a system of government. The president is Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, who took office in 2000, Rwanda today has low corruption compared with neighbouring countries, although human rights organisations report suppression of opposition groups, intimidation and restrictions on freedom of speech. The country has been governed by an administrative hierarchy since pre-colonial times. Rwanda is one of two countries with a female majority in the national parliament. Hunter gatherers settled the territory in the stone and iron ages, the population coalesced first into clans and then into kingdoms. The Kingdom of Rwanda dominated from the century, with the Tutsi kings conquering others militarily, centralising power. Germany colonised Rwanda in 1884 as part of German East Africa, followed by Belgium, both European nations ruled through the kings and perpetuated a pro-Tutsi policy. The Hutu population revolted in 1959 and they massacred numerous Tutsi and ultimately established an independent, Hutu-dominated state in 1962. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a war in 1990. Social tensions erupted in the 1994 genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to 1.3 million Tutsi, the RPF ended the genocide with a military victory. Rwandas economy suffered heavily during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, but has since strengthened, the economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture
3.
Burundi
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It is also considered part of Central Africa. The southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika, the Twa, Hutu and Tutsi peoples have lived in Burundi for at least 500 years. For more than 200 of those years, Burundi was an independent kingdom, until the beginning of the twentieth century, after the First World War and Germanys defeat, it ceded the territory to Belgium. Both Germans and Belgians ruled Burundi and Rwanda as a European colony known as Ruanda-Urundi, despite common misconceptions, Burundi and Rwanda had never been under common rule until the time of European colonisation. The European intervention exacerbated social differences between the Tutsi and Hutu, and contributed to political unrest in the region. Bouts of ethnic cleansing and ultimately two civil wars and genocides during the 1970s and again in the 1990s left the country undeveloped, Burundis political system is that of a presidential representative democratic republic based upon a multi-party state. The President of Burundi is the head of state and head of government, there are currently 21 registered parties in Burundi. On 13 March 1992, Tutsi coup leader Pierre Buyoya established a constitution, six years later, on 6 June 1998, the constitution was changed, broadening National Assemblys seats and making provisions for two vice-presidents. Because of the Arusha Accord, Burundi enacted a government in 2000. In October 2016, Burundi informed the UN of its intention to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, Burundi remains an overwhelmingly rural society, with just 13% of the population living in urban areas in 2013. The population density of around 315 people per kilometre is the second highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly 85% of the population are of Hutu ethnic origin, 15% are Tutsi, the official languages of Burundi are French and Kirundi, although Swahili can be found spoken along the Tanzanian border. One of the smallest countries in Africa, Burundi has an equatorial climate, Burundi is a part of the Albertine Rift, the western extension of the East African Rift. The country lies on a plateau in the centre of Africa. The highest peak, Mount Heha at 2,685 m, lies to the southeast of the capital, there are two national parks, Kibira National Park to the northwest, Ruvubu National Park to the northeast. Both were established in 1982 to conserve wildlife populations, Burundis lands are mostly agricultural or pasture. Settlement by rural populations has led to deforestation, soil erosion, deforestation of the entire country is almost completely due to overpopulation, with a mere 600 km2 remaining and an ongoing loss of about 9% per annum. In addition to poverty, Burundians often have to deal with corruption, weak infrastructure, poor access to health and education services, Burundi is densely populated and has had substantial emigration as young people seek opportunities elsewhere
4.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
5.
Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
6.
Socialism
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Social ownership may refer to forms of public, collective, or cooperative ownership, to citizen ownership of equity, or to any combination of these. Although there are varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them. Socialist economic systems can be divided into both non-market and market forms, non-market socialism aims to circumvent the inefficiencies and crises traditionally associated with capital accumulation and the profit system. Profits generated by these firms would be controlled directly by the workforce of each firm or accrue to society at large in the form of a social dividend, the feasibility and exact methods of resource allocation and calculation for a socialist system are the subjects of the socialist calculation debate. Core dichotomies associated with these concerns include reformism versus revolutionary socialism, the term is frequently used to draw contrast to the political system of the Soviet Union, which critics argue operated in an authoritarian fashion. By the 1920s, social democracy and communism became the two dominant political tendencies within the international socialist movement, by this time, Socialism emerged as the most influential secular movement of the twentieth century, worldwide. Socialist parties and ideas remain a force with varying degrees of power and influence in all continents. Today, some socialists have also adopted the causes of social movements. The origin of the term socialism may be traced back and attributed to a number of originators, in addition to significant historical shifts in the usage, for Andrew Vincent, The word ‘socialism’ finds its root in the Latin sociare, which means to combine or to share. The related, more technical term in Roman and then medieval law was societas and this latter word could mean companionship and fellowship as well as the more legalistic idea of a consensual contract between freemen. The term socialism was created by Henri de Saint-Simon, one of the founders of what would later be labelled utopian socialism. Simon coined socialism as a contrast to the doctrine of individualism. They presented socialism as an alternative to liberal individualism based on the ownership of resources. The term socialism is attributed to Pierre Leroux, and to Marie Roch Louis Reybaud in France, the term communism also fell out of use during this period, despite earlier distinctions between socialism and communism from the 1840s. An early distinction between socialism and communism was that the former aimed to only socialise production while the latter aimed to socialise both production and consumption. However, by 1888 Marxists employed the term socialism in place of communism, linguistically, the contemporary connotation of the words socialism and communism accorded with the adherents and opponents cultural attitude towards religion. In Christian Europe, of the two, communism was believed to be the atheist way of life, in Protestant England, the word communism was too culturally and aurally close to the Roman Catholic communion rite, hence English atheists denoted themselves socialists. Friedrich Engels argued that in 1848, at the time when the Communist Manifesto was published, socialism was respectable on the continent and this latter branch of socialism produced the communist work of Étienne Cabet in France and Wilhelm Weitling in Germany
7.
Colonel
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Colonel is a senior military officer rank below the general officer ranks. However, in small military forces, such as those of Iceland or the Vatican. It is also used in police forces and paramilitary organizations. Historically, in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of a regiment in an army, the rank of colonel is typically above the rank of lieutenant colonel. The rank above colonel is typically called brigadier, brigade general or brigadier general, equivalent naval ranks may be called captain or ship-of-the-line captain. In the Commonwealth air force rank system, the equivalent rank is group captain, the word colonel derives from the same root as the word column and means of a column, and, by implication, commander of a column. The word colonel is therefore linked to the column in a similar way that brigadier is linked to brigade. By the end of the medieval period, a group of companies was referred to as a column of an army. Since the word is believed to derive from sixteenth-century Italian, it was presumably first used by Italian city states in that century. The first use of colonel as a rank in an army was in the French National Legions created by King Francis I by his decree of 1534. Building on the reforms of Louis XIIs decree of 1509. Each colonel commanded a legion with a strength of six thousand men. With the shift from primarily mercenary to primarily national armies in the course of the seventeenth century, the Spanish equivalent rank of coronel was used by the Spanish tercios in the 16th and 17th centuries. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, nicknamed the Great Captain, divided his armies in coronelías or colonelcies, however, the Spanish word probably derives from a different origin, in that it appears to designate an officer of the crown, rather than an officer of the column. This makes the Spanish word coronel probably cognate with the English word coroner and this regiment, or governance, was to some extent embodied in a contract and set of written rules, also referred to as the colonels regiment or standing regulation. By extension, the group of companies subject to a colonels regiment came to be referred to as his regiment as well, the position, however, was primarily contractual and it became progressively more of a functionless sinecure. By the late 19th century, colonel was a military rank though still held typically by an officer in command of a regiment or equivalent unit. As European military influence expanded throughout the world, the rank of colonel became adopted by every nation
8.
Tutsi
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The Tutsi, or Abatutsi, are a population inhabiting the African Great Lakes region. Historically, they were referred to as the Watutsi, Watusi. They speak Rwanda-Rundi, a group of Bantu languages, the Tutsi are the second largest population division among the three largest groups in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa. Small numbers of Hema, Kiga and Furiiru people also live near the Tutsi in Rwanda. The Northern Tutsi who reside in Rwanda are called Ruguru, while southern Tutsi that live in Burundi are known as Hima, the definitions of Hutu and Tutsi people may have changed through time and location. Social structures were not stable throughout Rwanda, even during colonial times under the Belgian rule, the Tutsi aristocracy or elite was distinguished from Tutsi commoners, and wealthy Hutu were often indistinguishable from upper-class Tutsi. When the European colonists conducted censuses, they wanted to identify the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a classification scheme. They defined Tutsi as anyone owning more than ten cows or with the feature of a longer nose, or longer neck. The Europeans believed that some Tutsis had facial characteristics that were atypical of other Bantus. By contrast, the Europeans considered the majority Hutu to be characteristic Bantu people of Central African origin, the Tutsi have lived in the areas where they are for 400–500 years, leading to considerable intermarriage with the Hutu, a Bantu people in the area. To note the names Hutu and Bantu are not the same as they imply different things, modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome generally indicate that the Tutsi, like the Hutu, are largely of Bantu extraction. Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few, however, the Tutsi have considerably more Nilo-Saharan paternal lineages than the Hutu. Trombetta et al. found 22. 2% of E1b1b in a sample of Tutsis from Burundi. The subclade was of the M293 variety, which suggests that the ancestors of Tutsis in this area may have assimilated some South Cushitic pastoralists, in general, the Tutsi appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Hutus. With a spectrum of variation in the peoples, Belgian authorities legally mandated ethnic affiliation in the 1920s. Formal and discrete social divisions were consequently imposed upon ambiguous biological distinctions, the social categories are thus real, but there is little if any detectable genetic differentiation between Hutu and Tutsi. Tishkoff et al. found their mixed Hutu and Tutsi samples from Rwanda to be predominately of Bantu origin, prior to the arrival of colonists, Rwanda had been ruled by a Tutsi-dominated monarchy after mid-1600. Beginning in about 1880, Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in the Great Lakes region, later, when German forces occupied the area during World War I, the conflict and efforts for Catholic conversion became more pronounced
9.
Butare
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Butare is a city in the Southern Province of Rwanda and capital of Huye district. It was the capital of the former Butare Province, Rwanda and it was the formal colonial capital of Rwanda. Butare used to have the National University of Rwanda which is now part of university of rwanda and it also held the prestigious Nyakibanda Seminary, the Rwandan National Institute of Scientific Research, the Ruhande Arboretum and a cathedral. It is also home to the Stade Huye, due to the large number of university students and student-centered activities in the city, Butare is often regarded as a university city. The city of Butare has long regarded as the intellectual capital of the country. The Belgian colonial rulers named the city Astrida, in honor of Queen Astrid of Belgium, the first Catholic mission in 1900 in the country was only a few kilometers from the town center, at Save Hill. The National Museum of Rwanda was built in the early 1990s and is a source of information on the cultural history of the country. It is often referred to in tourist brochures as the finest museum in East Africa, from 2006, some sources refer to the city as Huye, after the surrounding district, but most Rwandans continue to use the name Butare. The Groupe Scolaire in Butare is the largest secondary school in Rwanda, the city is served by Butare Airport, a small civilian airport, administered by the Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority
10.
Bujumbura
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Bujumbura, formerly Usumbura, is the capital, largest city, and main port of Burundi. It ships most of the chief export, coffee, as well as cotton. It is on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake in the world after Lake Baikal. The city center is a town with a large market, the national stadium, a large mosque. Museums in the city include the Burundi Museum of Life and the Burundi Geological Museum, ferries sail from Bujumbura to Kigoma in Tanzania. The city is home to the Bujumbura International Airport and the University of Burundi, Bujumbura grew from a small village after it became a military post in German East Africa in 1889. After World War I it was made the center of the Belgian League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi. The name was changed from Usumbura to Bujumbura when Burundi became independent in 1962, since independence, Bujumbura has been the scene of frequent fighting between the countrys two main ethnic groups, with Hutu militias opposing the Tutsi-dominated Burundi army. Bujumbura today stands as a city but remains to develop with its country. According to the BBC, Bujumbura residents are known for their tradition of Saturday morning runs started during Burundis long years of ethnic conflict. Because the surrounding hills were home to armed militants before 2005, Bujumbura residents would try to vent their fear and frustration and claustrophobia, by running, in March 2014, President Pierre Nkurunziza banned jogging, due to fears it was being used as a cover for subversion. That same month, twenty-one opposition supporters were sentenced to life in prison for using jogging as a way to organize a demonstration that turned violent. As of June 2014 in Bujumbura, the authorities have since restricted jogging clubs to certain areas, all sports must now take place in nine parks in Bujumbura and other designated football pitches. Bujumbura is governed by a community council and community administrator and it is further divided into 13 communes, or neighborhoods, each with its own council and boss. Bujumbura features a tropical climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. Its wet season is from October through April, while the dry season covers the five months. Despite being located close to the equator, Bujumbura is not nearly as warm as one might expect, average temperatures are constant throughout the course of the year with the high temperature at around 29 °C and the low temperature at around 19 °C. Bujumburas central market is in the City Centre, along Rwagasore Avenue, consequently, vendors moved their business to the central market, many settling outside the market due to lack of space
11.
Pierre Nkurunziza
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Pierre Nkurunziza is a Burundian politician who has been President of Burundi since 2005. He was the Chairman of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy, in 2015, Nkurunziza was controversially nominated by his party for a third term in office. Supporters and opponents of Nkurunziza disagreed as to whether it was legal for him to run again, more than two months of anti-Nkurunziza protests, which were often violently repressed, left at least 100 dead. Facing resistance from Nkurunziza loyalists, the collapsed and forces loyal to Nkurunziza appeared to be back in full control by 15 May. Independent media was shut down and many fled, joining an exodus of more than 150,000 Burundians. Amidst an opposition boycott, Nkurunziza was re-elected for a term in the July 2015 presidential election. Nkurunziza was born in 1963 in Burundis capital city of Bujumbura, Nkurunziza was raised in the province of Ngozi in northern Burundi, the son of a Tutsi mother and a Hutu father. He attended primary school in Ngozi, before the civil war, Mr Nkurunziza, who had graduated in sports education, was a teacher and assistant lecturer at the University of Burundi. After rising through the ranks, Nkurunziza was appointed deputy secretary-general of the CNDD-FDD in 1998, in 2001, he was elected chairman. There was a split in the group in late 2001 and he was re-elected to the post of chairman in August 2004. During the war Nkurunziza is said to have survived a near death experience, beginning in late 2003 and after the ceasefire agreement, he was appointed Minister for Good Governance in the transitional government of President Domitien Ndayizeye. Following a series of CNDD-FDD victories in elections held during June and July 2005 and he was elected president unopposed by members of parliament on 19 August 2005 and took office on 26 August 2005. He was re-elected in 2010 with more than 91% of the votes amidst an opposition boycott, in March 2014, Nkurunziza banned jogging, due to fears it was being used as a cover for subversion. In April 2015 Nkurunziza announced that he would seek a third term in office, the opposition said that Nkurunzizas bid to extend his term was in defiance of the constitution, as it bars the president from running for a third term. However, Nkurunzizas allies said his first term did not count as he was elected by parliament, on April 26 police clashed with demonstrators protesting Nkurunziza’s announcement that he will seek a third term in office. At least six people were killed in the first two days of ongoing protests, African Union commission head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said she welcomed a decision by Burundis Senate to ask the Constitutional Court to rule whether Nkurunziza could stand for re-election. More than 24,000 people fled Burundi in April, as tensions mount ahead of elections in June. On May 13,2015, Burundi Army General Godefroid Niyombareh declared a coup via radio while Nkurunziza was abroad attending a summit in Tanzania with other African leaders, Niyombareh had been dismissed from his post as head of intelligence in February 2015
12.
Rwandan genocide
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The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, was a genocidal mass slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority government. An estimated more than 800,000 Rwandans were killed during the 100-day period from April 7 to mid-July 1994, additionally, 30% of the Pygmy Batwa were killed. The genocide and widespread slaughter of Rwandans ended when the Tutsi-backed, an estimated 2,000,000 Rwandans, mostly Hutus, were displaced and became refugees. The genocide was planned by members of the political elite. Perpetrators came from the ranks of the Rwandan army, the Gendarmerie, government-backed militias including the Interahamwe, waves of Hutu violence against the RPF and Tutsi followed Rwandan independence in 1962. This agreement was not acceptable to a number of conservative Hutu, including members of the Akazu, many Hutus reacted to this prospect with extreme opposition. In the lead-up to the genocide the number of machetes imported into Rwanda increased, on April 6,1994, an airplane carrying Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down on its descent into Kigali. At the time, the plane was in the airspace above Habyarimanas house, one person survived but died soon after en route to the hospital. The assassination of Habyarimana ended the peace accords, genocidal killings began the following day. Soldiers, police, and militia quickly executed key Tutsi and moderate Hutu military, checkpoints and barricades were erected to screen all holders of the national ID card of Rwanda in order to systematically identify and kill Tutsi. Other observers criticized the government of France for alleged support of the Hutu government after the genocide had begun, the genocide had a lasting and profound impact on Rwanda and its neighboring countries. The pervasive use of rape as a weapon of war caused a spike in HIV infection, including babies born of rape to newly infected mothers, many households were headed by orphaned children or widows. The destruction of infrastructure and the depopulation of the country crippled the economy, challenging the nascent government to achieve rapid economic growth. Declaring a need to avert further genocide, the RPF-led government led military incursions into Zaire, including the First, Armed struggles between the Rwandan government and their opponents in DRC have continued to play out through proxy militias in the Goma region, including the M23 rebellion. Large Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi populations continue to live as refugees throughout the region, today, Rwanda has two public holidays mourning the genocide. The national mourning period begins with Kwibuka, the commemoration, on April 7. The week following April 7 is a week of mourning. The genocide served as an impetus for creating the International Criminal Court to eliminate the need for ad hoc tribunals to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes
