Rwandan Genocide: Hutus, Tutsis, and United Nations Soldiers

I guess during the time I was struggling with middle school peers and worried about what other girls thought of my clothes, something nasty happened approximately 6,500 miles away, which is only an 8-hour flight from where I used to live. Who would have thought that even in the 90s, such atrocities would be committed? The movie Hotel Rwanda has depicted some sad displays of human cruelty, although the brutality of it has mostly been censored for the sake of wider audiences. When you read the descriptions of the Rwandan genocide, and try to imagine the scope of the death toll and methods being used to commit the war crimes, you can’t help but feel deeply saddened and disgusted by what human people are capable of.

Throughout the Rwandan Civil War, between April seventh and July fifteenth, 1994, the Rwandan genocide happened. Equipped militias murdered members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, and some moderate Hutu and Twa, throughout about 100 days. According to the most regularly accepted academic estimates, between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsis passed away. The death toll (consisting of Hutu and Twa casualties) is approximated to be around 1,100,000.

How did all of this happen? How did it get so far? And happened during and after this short time period, in which so many lives were claimed? Let’s find out in this comprehensive book about the 1994 Rwandan genocide.