As part of the invasion, Kagame sponsored two rebel wars in Zaire. Hutu refugee camps formed in Zaire and other countries and the RPF attacked the camps in 1996, but insurgents continued to attack Rwanda. Kagame said he did not support these killings but failed to stop them. Many RPF soldiers carried out retribution killings. Kagame resumed the civil war and ended the genocide with a military victory.ĭuring his vice presidency, Kagame controlled the national army and was responsible for maintaining the government's power, while other officials began rebuilding the country.

The assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana set off the genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu.

By 1993, the RPF controlled significant territory in Rwanda and a ceasefire was negotiated. Kagame joined the RPF, taking control of the group when previous leader Fred Rwigyema died on the second day of the 1990 invasion. In the 1980s, Kagame fought in Yoweri Museveni's rebel army, becoming a senior Ugandan army officer after many military victories led Museveni to the Ugandan presidency. He was considered Rwanda's de facto leader when he was Vice President and Minister of Defence under President Pasteur Bizimungu from 1994 to 2000 after which the vice-presidential post was abolished.īorn to a Tutsi family in southern Rwanda that fled to Uganda when he was two years old, he would spend the rest of his childhood there during the Rwandan Revolution, which ended centuries of Tutsi political dominance. The RPF was one of the parties of the conflict during the Rwandan Civil War and the armed force which ended the Rwandan genocide.

He was previously a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel armed force which invaded Rwanda in 1990. Paul Kagame ( / k ə ˈ ɡ ɑː m eɪ/ ⓘ kə- GAH-may born 23 October 1957) is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who has been the fourth President of Rwanda since 2000.

Instaling Rogue State Revolution