How the Rwandan Genocide Unfolded in 100 Days of Slaughter

Eight Hundred Thousand Dead Before the World Responded

On the evening of April 6, 1994, a surface-to-air missile struck the plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana as it approached Kigali airport. Within an hour, roadblocks appeared across the capital. Within a day, organized killing squads were executing Tutsi families house by house. Over the next 100 days—from April 7 to mid-July—an estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 people were murdered in the fastest genocide in recorded history. The killing rate exceeded even the Holocaust at its peak.

The violence did not erupt spontaneously. It was planned, rehearsed, and funded by extremists within Rwanda's Hutu-dominated government who had spent years preparing for what they called the "final solution" to the Tutsi question.

Colonial Roots of Ethnic Division

Rwanda's Hutu-Tutsi division was not ancient tribal hatred. Belgian colonizers hardened fluid social categories into rigid racial classifications during the 1930s, issuing identity cards that labeled every Rwandan as Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa. Belgians favored Tutsis for administrative roles, creating resentment that exploded after independence in 1962 when Hutus seized power.

• 1959–1963: Anti-Tutsi pogroms drove roughly 300,000 into exile in Uganda, Burundi, and Congo
• 1973: Juvénal Habyarimana took power in a coup and institutionalized Tutsi discrimination through quotas
• 1987: Tutsi exiles in Uganda formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) under Paul Kagame
• 1990: RPF invaded northern Rwanda, triggering a civil war and escalating anti-Tutsi propaganda domestically
• 1993: Arusha Accords promised power-sharing, but Hutu extremists viewed the agreement as betrayal

The Propaganda Machine

Radio Mille Collines (RTLM) began broadcasting in 1993. It was not a fringe outlet. Funded by Habyarimana's inner circle, it blended popular music with dehumanizing language, calling Tutsis "inyenzi" (cockroaches) and "inzoka" (snakes). The station broadcast specific instructions during the genocide—naming targets, identifying hiding locations, and encouraging listeners to "cut down the tall trees."

The newspaper Kangura published the "Hutu Ten Commandments" in 1990, which forbade intermarriage and declared any Hutu who associated with Tutsis a traitor. These media campaigns normalized hatred systematically over four years before the killing began.

Timeline of the 100 Days

The International Failure

Canadian General Roméo Dallaire commanded the UN peacekeeping force (UNAMIR) in Rwanda. In January 1994—three months before the genocide—he sent a now-famous fax to UN headquarters warning of weapons caches and plans for extermination. His superiors ordered him not to act. The U.S. government deliberately avoided using the word "genocide" because doing so would have triggered legal obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention.

• Dallaire had 2,500 troops but was forbidden from confiscating weapons or intervening in killings
• After ten Belgian peacekeepers were murdered, Belgium withdrew entirely, as the extremists had calculated
• The UN reduced the force to 270 soldiers at the peak of the slaughter
• The Clinton administration blocked proposals to jam RTLM radio broadcasts
• France maintained ties with the Hutu government and its Opération Turquoise was criticized for protecting fleeing génocidaires

Weapons of the Genocide

Unlike industrialized killing in the Holocaust, Rwanda's genocide was carried out primarily with machetes, clubs, and small arms. The government had imported 581,000 machetes from China in 1993—one for every three adult Hutu males. Interahamwe militia members received training and were organized through local government structures. Neighbors killed neighbors. Teachers killed students. Doctors killed patients.

Churches became death traps. Thousands of Tutsis sought refuge in churches, schools, and stadiums, only to be massacred in concentrated groups. The Nyamata Church alone saw 10,000 people killed inside its walls.

Justice and Reconciliation After Genocide

Rwanda faced an impossible challenge: prosecuting hundreds of thousands of perpetrators with a judicial system that had been destroyed. The country pursued justice through multiple mechanisms simultaneously.

Gacaca courts—community-based tribunals rooted in traditional justice—were the most remarkable innovation. Between 2005 and 2012, over 12,000 gacaca courts processed nearly two million cases. Defendants who confessed and showed remorse received reduced sentences, often involving community service rather than prison. The system was imperfect—critics raised concerns about false accusations and coerced confessions—but it prevented a justice backlog that would have taken conventional courts over a century to clear.

Rwanda Three Decades Later

Modern Rwanda has achieved economic growth averaging 7.5% annually since 2000 and has the highest percentage of women in parliament of any country (over 60%). Ethnic identity cards were abolished. Public discussion of Hutu and Tutsi identity is discouraged by law. President Kagame's government points to stability and development as proof that reconciliation works, while critics argue that political repression and press restrictions have simply driven ethnic tensions underground rather than resolving them.

The genocide's legacy extends beyond Rwanda. It forced reforms in how the international community responds to mass atrocities, contributing to the development of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine adopted by the UN in 2005. Whether that doctrine has actually prevented future genocides remains an open and painful question.