Rwanda country profile (2024)

Rwanda, a small landlocked country in east-central Africa, is trying to recover from the ethnic strife that culminated in government-sponsored genocide in the mid-1990s.

An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by dominant Hutu forces in 100 days.

Rwanda has striven to rebuild its economy, with coffee and tea production among its main exports, and economic development has helped reduce poverty and inequality.

Paul Kagame became president in 2000 and has effectively run Rwanda since 1994. While his government has maintained stability and economic growth, the US-based NGO Freedom House says it has also suppressed political dissent through intimidation, torture and suspected assassinations of exiled dissidents.

Paul Kagame has run Rwanda since his rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)army gained control of the country after the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people in 1994.

He was sworn in as vice-president and defence minister in the post-genocide government in July 1994, but was widely seen as the real power in Rwanda.

In 2000 parliament elected him president and he has won elections ever since. In the July 2024 election President Kagame won a landslide victory. However, as in previous votes he faced no meaningful opposition with leading figures banned.

His critics say he is an authoritarian despot who tolerates no opposition who has curtailed freedoms since taking office. His supporters say he is a visionary leader who has presided over economic growth and helped end ethnic divisions.

State TV and radio reach the largest audiences and operate alongside privately-owned outlets.

Self-censorship is commonplace, says Reporters Without Borders. Exile journalists operate online, prompting website blocking, says Freedom House.

Some key dates in the history of Rwanda:

15th-19th Centuries - Clans in the area begin to merge into kingdoms. One of these, the Kingdom of Rwanda becomes increasingly dominant from the mid-18th Century, reaching its greatest extent in the 19th Century.

1884 - Berlin Conference sees partition of much of Africa by European colonial powers, following which Rwanda becomes part of German East Africa.

1914-1918 - World War One.

1914-18 - World War One: East African campaign see German forces defeated by British, Belgian and allied troops. Belgian army occupies both Burundi and Rwanda in 1916.

1922 - Ruanda-Urundi becomes a Belgian League of Nations mandate.

Both the Germans and the Belgians promote Tutsi supremacy, considering the Hutu and Tutsi different races.

1935 - Belgium introduces an identity card system, labelling people as either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or naturalised.

1959-62 - The Rwandan Revolution: ethnic violence in Rwanda between Hutus and Tutsis. Tutsi King Kigeri V and thousands of Tutsis go into exile in Uganda following the violence.

1962 - Rwanda and Burundi become independent as separate nations. Rwanda, which had been a Tutsi monarchy under Belgian colonial authority is now an independent Hutu-dominated republic.

1963 - About 20,000 Tutsis are killed following an incursion by Tutsi rebels based in Burundi. Fighting between the two ethnic groups continues intermittently over the next three decades.

1973 - Juvénal Habyarimana seizes power in a military coup.

1990-1994 - Rwandan civil war. The rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) comprising Tutsi refugees, invades northern Rwanda from Uganda. The RPF condemns the Hutu-dominated government for failing to democratize.

1993 - Peace treaty signed.

1994 - Ceasefire ends when Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundi's President Cyprien Ntaryamira are killed when their aircraft is shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Most theories say the aircraft was shot down either by the RPF or government-aligned Hutu followers opposed to talks with the RPF.

Mr Habyarimana's death triggers the Rwandan genocide, perpetrated mainly by Hutus against Tutsis and moderate Hutus. About 800,000 people are killed.

1996-2003 - Rwanda's invasion of DR Congo marks the beginning of its lengthy involvement in the neighbouring country's two civil wars.

2003 - Voters back a draft constitution which bans the incitement of ethnic hatred. Paul Kagame wins the first presidential elections since the 1994 genocide.

2005 - Government begins the mass release of thousands who confessed to involvement in the 1994 genocide. Rwanda's 12 provinces are replaced by a smaller number of regions with the aim of creating ethnically-diverse administrative areas.

2015 - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda holds its last hearings, 10 years after opening, and having convicted 93 individuals in connection with the 1994 genocide.

2022 - DR Congo, UN, US and others accuse Rwanda of sending its soldiers to fight alongside M23 rebels in eastern DR Congo, who face accusations of carrying war crimes against civilians. Rwanda denies this.

Conservative UK government and Rwanda agree to send some UK asylum seekers to Rwanda, amid considerable opposition in the UK.

2024 - UK's Labour government axes Rwanda asylum scheme. Legal challenges meant no asylum seekers were sent to Rwanda.