One of the world’s most violent genocides took place in Rwanda, a small island-like country in Africa. The population of the country is made up of three ethnic groups. The Hutus made up about 84% of the population. The Tutsis were the elite class, and they made up the other 15% of the population. Tension started between the two groups in 1960. About 20,000 Tutsi were killed and 250,000 of them were driven to exile. Although these two ethnic groups share many similarities, “there is such a severe conflict between them that the former Rwandan President, Gregore Kayibanda, proposed a two-country solution under which both Hutus and Tutsis would each have their own country upon independence from Belgian colonial rule” (Ogletree). However, this proposal never resolved the situation. The Rwandan Genocide took place thirty years later when the President of their country was killed in a suspicious plane crash. It was determined that “during a three-month period in 1994, approximately one million Rwandans were killed by fellow Rwandans.” (Anderson)
