Timeline

 

October 1, 1990 – Tutsi rebel group the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), formed largely from descendants of Rwandans who fled Hutu purges in 1959, invades Rwanda from Uganda.

October 3, 1993 – Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana signs a peace deal known as the Arusha Accords, with the RPF in Arusha, Tanzania.

October 5, 1993 – The United Nations agrees to send in a peacekeeping force.

April 6, 1994 – Habyarimana dies when his plane is shot down over Kigali as it returns from talks with the RPF in Tanzania. The Burundian president and the French crew of the plane also die in the crash. Radical Hutus blame the RPF for the attack.

April 7, 1994 – The Rwandan armed forces and Interahamwe militia begin the systematic killing of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda, is told by headquarters not to intervene and to avoid armed conflict. Ten Belgian UN peacekeepers are killed.

Day 1
Estimated Death Toll: 8,000

April 8, 1994 – The Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launches a major offensive to end the killings and rescue 600 of its troops based in Kigali under the Arusha Accords.

April 9-10, 1994 – French and Belgian troops evacuate foreigners. Gen. Dallaire requests a doubling of his force to 5,000.

Day 4
Estimated Death Toll: 32,000

April 12, 1994 – The Hutu government retreats from the capital as invading RPF forces approach.

April 14, 1994 – Belgium withdraws its troops from the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda.

Day 8
Estimated Death Toll: 64,000

April 21, 1994 – The UN cuts the level of its forces in Rwanda by 90% to just 270 troops.

Day 14
Estimated Death Toll: 112,000

April 30, 1994 – The UN agrees a resolution condemning the killing, but excludes the word ‘genocide’. Tens of thousands of refugees flee into neighboring Burundi, Tanzania and Zaire.

Day 24
Estimated Death Toll: 200,000

May 17, 1994 – The UN Security Council issues a resolution saying that ‘acts of genocide may have been committed’ and approves the deployment of 5,500 peacekeepers. However, disagreements over financing delay the mission.

Day 41
Estimated Death Toll: 328,000

May 22, 1994 – RPF forces gain control of Kigali airport and Kanombe barracks, and extend their control over the northern and eastern parts of Rwanda.

June 22, 1994 – The UN Security Council backs a plan by the French to protect civilians. Some 2,500 French troops deploy around refugee camps in Zaire and in southwest Rwanda.

Day 77
Estimated Death Toll: 616,000

July 4, 1994 – The RPF takes control of Rwandan capital, Kigali.

July 13-14, 1994 – Tens of thousands of Hutus, many of them those who took part in the massacres, flee to Zaire.

July 17, 1994 – The French end their mission in Rwanda and are replaced by Ethiopian U.N. troops. The RPF sets up a temporary government in Kigali. Although disease and more killings claim additional lives in the refugee camps, the genocide is over.

Day 100

An estimated 800,000 Rwandans killed 

July 18, 1994 – The RPF announces a ceasefire and appoints Pasteur Bizimungu as president with Faustin Twagiramungu as prime minister. RPF leader Paul Kagame is appointed vice president and defense minister.

Nov 8, 1994 – The UN agrees to set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to try the most high-profile genocide suspects.