\n Here are key dates since President Paul Kagame's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took control of Rwanda in 1994.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 1994: Genocide and takeover in Kigali -\n<\/p>\n
\n On July 4, 1994, the armed wing of the RPF -- which launched a civil war four years earlier from Uganda where its founding Tutsi members were exiled -- captures Kigali.\n<\/p>\n
\n The seizure of the capital halts 100 days of genocide in which extremist Hutus killed 800,000 people, primarily minority Tutsis.\n<\/p>\n
\n A million Hutus, including those held responsible for the worst massacres, flee across the western border to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).\n<\/p>\n
\n Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu allied with the RPF, is named president, and RPF leader Paul Kagame becomes the vice-president and defence minister.\n<\/p>\n
\n On November 8, the UN creates the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to prosecute those responsible for the genocide.\n<\/p>\n
\n Based in Tanzania, the ICTR operates for 20 years and convicts several dozen suspects, while related trials also take place in countries including Belgium and France.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 1996: First foray into Zaire\/DRC -\n<\/p>\n
\n In September 1996, Rwandan troops enter Zaire, citing a security threat from Hutu extremists in refugee camps. Thousands of refugees are forcibly repatriated.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Rwandan military backs a rebellion led by Laurent-Desire Kabila, which ousts Zaire's leader Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997. Kagame admits Rwanda planned and executed the insurgency.\n<\/p>\n
\n In July 1998, Kabila orders Rwandan troops out of the DRC.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rwanda switches sides on the grounds that Kabila was not as set on pursuing Hutu genocidaires in his country as had been hoped. Kigali supports a new rebellion against Kabila which broke out on August 2.\n<\/p>\n
\n This leads to a major conflict that lasts five years, with several nations backing either side. It left at least three million dead, according to a consensus casualty toll in what became known as \"Africa's World War\".\n<\/p>\n
\n - 2000: Kagame becomes president -\n<\/p>\n
\n Bizimungu resigns in March after months of internal power struggles in the RPF. Kagame -- long considered the most powerful man in the country -- is elected president on April 17.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kagame wins re-election in 2003 and 2010, each time with more than 90 percent of the vote.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 2006: Diplomatic relations with France break down -\n<\/p>\n
\n On November 24, 2006, Kigali breaks off diplomatic ties with Paris after a French judge charges that Kagame and nine others were involved in an attack that killed Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and triggered the 1994 genocide.\n<\/p>\n
\n Relations are restored in 2009 but remain troubled and subject to developments in the French investigation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ahead of the genocide's 20th anniversary, Kagame accuses Paris of playing a \"direct role\" in Habyarimana's assassination, and of taking part in \"his execution.\" On November 29, 2016, Kigali launches an inquiry into the role of 20 French officials in the genocide.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 2010: Opposition crackdown -\n<\/p>\n
\n After returning from exile in January 2010, opposition leader Victoire Ingabire is arrested in October after publicly asking that the perpetrators of crimes against Hutus also be punished.\n<\/p>\n
\n Two years later she is sentenced to eight years in prison for terrorism and belittling the genocide.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ingabire appeals against the conviction but loses, and in December 2013 her sentence is extended to 15 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile, former Rwandan army chief turned opponent Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa is wounded on June 19, 2010 in Johannesburg, in an attack he blames on Kagame.\n<\/p>\n
\n On June 24, journalist Jean Leonard Rugambage is shot dead in Kigali after he accuses Kagame's regime of trying to kill Nyamwasa.\n<\/p>\n
\n Patrick Karegeya, a former Kagame ally and ex-spy chief, is strangled to death in Johannesburg on January 1, 2014. Kagame tells a prayer breakfast in Kigali 11 days later that \"treason brings consequences.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - 2015: Constitutional reform -\n<\/p>\n
\n On December 18, 2015, a referendum on constitutional reforms allowing Kagame to seek a third term in office passes with 98.4 percent voting in favour. The change means Kagame could run in later elections and may be able to stay in power until 2034.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here are key dates since President Paul Kagame's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took control of Rwanda in 1994. - 1994: Genocide and takeover in Kigali - On July 4, 1994, the armed wing of the RPF -- which launched a civil war four years earlier from Uganda where its founding Tutsi members were exiled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-34171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n