Rwanda
Rwanda has volcanic mountains, mountain gorillas in high altitude forests and Lake Kivu with beautiful beaches. However due to genocide and conflict a decade ago few people visit the country.
Rwanda is situatd in East Africa, the country is landlocked. It is surrounded by Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north and west, Uganda to the north east, Tanzania to the East and Burundi to the south.
Total Area:26,338 sq km
Land Borders: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Uganda
Population: 8,648,248
Life Expectancy: 47 years
HIV % Total Poulation:5.1%
Ethnic Groups: Hutu 84%, Tutsi 15%, Twa (Pygmoid) 1%
Languages:Kinyarwanda (official) universal Bantu vernacular, French (official), English (official), Kiswahili (Swahili) used in commercial centers
President:Paul KAGAME
GDP - Per Capita: $1,500
In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the killing in July 1994, but approximately 2 million Hutu refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the former Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but about 10,000 remain in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and have formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF tried in 1990. Despite substantial international assistance and political reforms - including Rwanda's first local elections in March 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in August and September 2003 - the country continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural output, and ethnic reconciliation is complicated by the real and perceived Tutsi political dominance. Kigali's increasing centralization and intolerance of dissent, the nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across the border, and Rwandan involvement in two wars in recent years in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts to escape its bloody legacy.