Methodical, systematic massacres and mass rapes. Between April and July 1994, in the space of a hundred days, three-quarters of the Tutsi minority – one of Rwanda’s three ethnic groups – were killed, and two million people fled the country. This genocide was triggered by the extremist Hutu regime on April 7, 1994, the day after the attack in which President Juvénal Habyarimana was assassinated, his plane having been shot down by at least one missile.
In this video, we return to the construction, years ago, of the genocidal apparatus by the Hutu extremist power. Because these massacres were not spontaneous: they were prepared, in particular through the financing of propaganda media, which disseminated an ideology of Hutu supremacy, and the training of Interahamwe paramilitary militias, which carried out the massacres alongside of the army and civilians. We also return to the gray areas surrounding France’s role in Rwanda at this time.
To find out more about the content of the Duclert commission report, delivered in 2021, and the conclusions drawn by the historians who participated in it, find our analysis below.
“Understand in three minutes”
The explanatory videos that make up the “Understand in three minutes” series are produced by the Vertical Videos department of the World. Broadcast primarily on platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, they aim to put major events into context in a short format and make the news accessible to everyone.
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