Modern Era · Africa · War

1994

Rwandan genocide begins

April 6, 1994

A plane carrying Rwanda's Hutu president was shot down over Kigali, and within hours Hutu extremists began killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus in what had been carefully planned. In a hundred days perhaps eight hundred thousand were hacked to death with machetes, many by neighbors. The world, including the UN, watched and did nothing.