The country of Rowanda is divided into two major ethnic groups- the tutsis and the hutus. For years the two groups worked together to do the work of farming. The tutsis usually owned the land and the hutus farmed the land. There were many marriages that involved two people from the different groups.
When the European colonists moved into Rwanda they favored the tutsis. The Europeans introduced weapons and modern methods of warfare. Also missionaries came with them and they encouraged the hutus to fight for their equality. So the hutus started to rebell. They gained power and started taking land away from the tutsis. The tutsis fled to surrounding countries and started to train soldiers.The unexperience hutus government started to have troubles. The RPF rebels group that was formed by tutsis took advantage of the troubles that the hutus were having and they attacked them. This started a civil war between the two groups. On April 6th, 1994, the hutu president was killed when his plane was shot down. The hutus blamed this on the tutsis and by using propoganda, they made the hutu people believe that it was their duty to eliminate tutsis. They started by killing hutus who weren't against the tutsis, then the wives and husbands of tutsis, and then the tutsis themselves.The Hutus killed up to a million people in a period of 100 days.
This all happened before I was born, but I'm still surprised I haven't heard of it until now. I can't believe that people could be so loyal to an ethnic group that they would kill thousands of people, and not strangers either but there neighbors and even relatives through marriage. It's sad that so many lives had to be lost.
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