April 6, 1994 Rwanda (Hutu tribe) President Habyarimana assassinated. (His plane was shot down by “Hutu Power” extremists.)
April 7, 1994 “Hutu Power” extremists launch a machete & spear genocide campaign against the Tutsis as a group, and against moderate Hutus.
The Tutsi, who had the “aristocratic” pedigree, represented 15% (1.1 million) of the total population of 7.3 million. Between 640,000 and 940,000 Tutsi were slaughtered (meaning 72% of the Tutsi population.) in the 100 day span of the genocide. As well, between 128,000 and 188,000 moderate Hutu were slaughtered (by Hutu extremists). Of the female Tutsi survivors of the slaughter and mass rape, many thousands had been infected with HIV.
July 1994: In an extraordinary role–reversal, the RPF (Tutsi rebel group) gains the upper hand in the civil war, and ends the “Hutu Power” genocide.