Attack on Dominique Mbonyumutwa

Date: November 1, 1959 • Location: Butare, Rwanda

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1959–1962.

Dominique Mbonyumutwa, one of the few Hutu sub-chiefs in colonial Rwanda, was attacked by Tutsi activists, precipitating the Rwandan Revolution.

Dominique Mbonyumutwa was a Rwandan politician who served as the interim first President of Rwanda for a period of nine months in 1961, during a transitional phase between the overthrow of the Rwandan monarchy in the Rwandan Revolution and the country's independence. Following an election in October of that year, he was succeeded by Grégoire Kayibanda who became the first elected president of the country following independence.