The Rwandan Genocide was a genocidalmass slaughter of Tutsi and moderateHutu in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority. During the approximate 100-day period from April 7, 1994, to mid-July, an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans were killed, constituting as much as 20% of the country's total population and 70% of the Tutsi then living in Rwanda. The genocide was planned by members of the core political elite known as the Akazu, many of whom occupied positions at top levels of the national government. The genocide took place in the context of the Rwandan Civil War, an ongoingconflict beginning in 1990 between the Hutu-led government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which was largely made of Tutsi refugees whose families had fled to Uganda following earlier waves of Hutu violence against the Tutsi. After the kill of president Cyprien Ntaryamira, which took place on April 6,1994, the next day the killings began. Soldiers, police and militia quickly executed key Tutsi and moderate Hutu leaders, then made checkpoints and barricades and used Rwandans' national identity cards to systematically verify their ethnicity and kill Tutsi. The breach of the peace agreement led the RPF to restart their offensive and rapidly take control of the northern part of the country before capturing Kigali in mid July, brought an end to the genocide. The genocide had a lasting and profound impact on Rwanda and its neighboring countries. The pervasive use of war rape 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 a severe depopulation of the country ruined the economy, forcing the nascent government to achieve rapid economic growth and stabilization.
The Holocaust was a genocide in which approximately six million