Assassination Catalyst for Rwandan Genocide

Date: April 6, 1994 • Location: Kigali, Rwanda

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1994.

The aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down in Kigali; the event became the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide.

Juvénal Habyarimana was a Rwandan politician and military dictator who was the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until his assassination in 1994.