- Rwanda
-
facts and figures (top
of page)
- information
used from unicef
- Rwanda
is one of the poorest countries in
the world. It ranks 158th out of 175
countries listed in the United
Nations Development Programme’s
(UNDP) Human Development Index:
- 60
percent of the population lives
below the poverty line.
- Rwanda’s
population is young. Out of the
8 million people living in
Rwanda, more than half are under
18years old.
- Rwanda
has one of the world’s worst
child mortality rates – one in
five Rwandan children die before
their fifth birthday. Malaria is
the leading cause of infant and
child mortality (29 per cent).
- 42
percent of Rwandan children
under five years old are
malnourished.
- More
than 400,000 children are out of
school.
- Rwanda
has one of the world’s largest
proportions of households that
are headed by children (i.e.
children raising children) with
an estimated 101,000 children
heading up some 42,000
households.
- 8.9
percent of the adult population
is HIV-positive.
- 2000
women - many of whom were
survivors of rape - were tested
for HIV during the five years
following the 1994 genocide. Out
of these women, 80 per cent were
found to be HIV-positive. Many
were not sexually active before
the genocide.
- Between
9 and 13.4 per cent of 15 to
24-year-old females, and between
3.9 and 5.9 per cent of 15 to
24-year-old boys are
HIV-positive.
- By
2001, an estimated 264,000
children had lost one or both
parents to AIDS – representing
43 per cent of all orphans.
- 613,000
Rwandan children between the
ages of 0 to 14 years old are
orphans.
- 88
per cent of women have to walk
for more than one hour to reach
a health facility.
Children
at risk of exploitation
- An
estimated 1 million orphans and
“other vulnerable children” live
in Rwanda. These children
include:
- 101,000
children heading up an estimated
42, 0000 households
- 7,000
street children
- 3,500
children living in orphanages
- 1,000
children living in conflict with
the law
- 60,000
children living with
disabilities
- 120,000
working children
- 300
infants living with their
mothers in prison
- children
affected by armed conflict
(2,500 still in Congo)
- children
who are sexually abused (unknown
figures)
- children
affected/infected by HIV/AIDS
(unknown figures)
Sexual exploitation:
There is growing evidence that many
children heading households –
especially girls – find themselves
forced to perform sexual favours in
exchange for money, basic goods or
protection.
Lack
of access to education:
Discriminatory attitudes towards
girls and lack of adequate sanitary
facilities prevent some adolescent
girls from attending school.
Sexual
abuse: Growing evidence
suggests that sexual abuse within
the home has increased since the
genocide.
- thegenocide
(top
of page)
In
1961 the victorious Hutu-led
Parmehutu party, having been elected
to power, proclaimed a republic and
abolished the Tutsi monarchy. In the
following year, 1962, Rwanda
achieved independence and Grégoire
Kayibanda was elected the first
president of the Rwandan Republic.
Tutsis became the victims of
official discrimination in virtually
all public services and in political
involvement.
Kayibanda
was overthrown by his National
Defence Minister Juvénal
Habyarimana in a coup in July 1973.
Habyarimana's Second Republic
claimedto be sympathetic to Tutsis;
but this was not borne out in fact.
In the years that followed under the
leadership of the oneparty system,
the National Revolutionary Movement
for Development (MRND), Tutsis
continued to experienced violence,
arrests, intimidation and abuse.
Violence
was never far from the surface in
these times. In 1959 King Rudahingwa
of Rwanda had died in mysterious
circumstances while under the care
of a Belgian doctor. The outbreak of
violence that followed marked the
beginning of a Rwandan 'social
revolution', with a peasant revolt
that left 20,000 Tutsis dead.
Thousands more were forced to flee
as refugees, and an estimated
200,000 settled in Uganda. In
1963-67, 100,000 Tutsis were
butchered with machetes and dumped
in rivers, and in 1973, Tutsi
students were massacred in their
thousands.
Habyarimana's
regime used ethnicity as a political
strategy in order to hold on to
power at any cost. Regional
divisions increased, with
northerners (the president's
henchmen) taking over virtually all
economic and political power.
Meanwhile, Rwandans living in exile
were pressing to return to their
country of origin, but met no
response from the government.
Finally, in 1990 the Rwanda
Patriotic Front (RPF) launched an
invasion from Uganda.
A
series of agreements backed by the
international community was signed
between the RPF and the government
of Rwanda to ensure a peaceful
settlement of the Rwandan crisis. On
6 April 1994 President Habyarimana
signed a peace agreement, but on his
way back from Dar-es-Salaam to
Kigali his plane was shot down and
he was killed.
Some
blamed those in his government who
were opposed to signing a peace
accord; others blamed the RPF; still
others said French mercenaries
wereresponsible because they feared
that Rwanda was about to be given to
the RPF. Whatever the reason, within
hours of his death lists of names of
opposition members, moderate Hutus
and prominent Tutsis were produced.
The massacres began: in a period of
three months over one million people
were killed.
http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk/resources/history/independence.php
- GENOCIDEFACTS
(top
of page)
The Rwandan
Genocide of 1994 was a truly
traumatic and horrifying event. It
was one of the most brutal acts of
murder ever committed.
- Over the
course of 100
days from April 6 to July 16
2004, an estimated 800,000
to 1 million Tutsis and
some moderate Hutus were
slaughtered in the Rwandan
genocide.1 A recent
report has estimated the number
to be close to 2 million.2
- During
this period of terrible
slaughter, more than 6
men, women and children were
murdered every minute
of every hour of every day. This
brutally efficient killing was
maintained for more than 3
months.3
- There
are between 300,000 to
400,000 survivors of
the genocide.4
- Between 250,000
and 500,000 women were raped
during the 100 days of genocide.5
Up to 20,000 children were born
to women as a result of rape.6
- More
than 67% of women
who were raped in 1994 during
the genocide were infected with
HIV and AIDS.7 In
many cases, this resulted from a
systematic and planned use of
rape by HIV+ men as a weapon of
genocide.8
- There
are 10 times as many widows than
widowers – almost 50,000
widows of the genocide.9
- Nearly 100,000
survivors are aged
between 14 and 21, of which 60,000
are categorised as very
vulnerable.10
- 75,000
of survivors were orphaned
as a result of the genocide.11
- Of those
that survived the genocide over
half the children stopped their
schooling, because of
poverty.12
- 40,000
survivors are still without
shelter, many whose
homes were destroyed in the
genocide.13
- 7 in 10
survivors earn a monthly
income of less than 5000 Rwandan
Francs (Equivalent to 8
(eight) American Dollars)
http://www.survivors-fund.org.uk/resources/history/statistics.php
1
The UN estimate the number killed as
800,000. The Rwandan Government
estimate is 1,071,000. http://www.democraticcentral.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1862
2
A 2008 AERG Report estimates the
number killed to be 1,952,078 people
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200810040044.html)
3
A statistical average on the basis
of the estimate of 800,000 to 1
million people killed in 100 days.
(6 people x 60 minutes x 24 hours x
100 days = 864,000 people)
4
Rwandan Ministry of Social Affairs,
2007 census estimates the number to
be 309,368 (http://www.hirondellenews.com/content/view/2328/182/).
IBUKA (the umbrella body of
survivors' organisations in Rwanda)
estimates the number to be nearer to
400,000.
5
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR47/007/2004/en/dom-AFR470072004en.pdf,
page 6
6
Foundation Rwanda, 2008: www.foundationrwanda.com
7
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR47/007/2004/en/dom-AFR470072004en.pdf,
page 2
8
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673602118046
9
Rwandan Ministry of Social Affairs,
2007: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Survivors
10
http://www.hirondellenews.com/content/view/2328/182/
11
http://www.hirondellenews.com/content/view/1084/182/
12
http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=54939
13
Rwandan Ministry of Social Affairs,
2007: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Survivors
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