The last French troops pull out of Rwanda

Rwanda, much like the rest of the African continent, was ruled by colonial powers that left a legacy of ethnic and class divisions. The Tutsi had been the preferred group of the former Belgian colonialists and as a result, tension developed between the Hutu and Tutsi, leading to massacres throughout 20th century Rwanda in which both groups were severely affected. The most well-know massacre, the 1994 (Tutsi) Genocide, took place against the backdrop of a civil war, in which the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) sought to overthrow the Habyarimina regime. In April 1994, Habyarimina's plane was shot down, and this marked the start of the genocide. By the time the United Nations (UN) troops had been stationed in Rwanda, thousands of Tutsi and moderate Hutus had been murdered. In June 1994, French troops were deployed to Rwanda, with the sole purpose of protecting civilians marked for genocide and so-called genocide lists were circulated, indicating who was to be murdered. The French support for the genocidal regime seems to have enabled human rights abuses on the part of French troops, who have been accused of assisting in the genocide by training militia and providing them with weapons, as well as raping survivors of the genocide. To counter these accusations, the French claimed to have saved thousands of lives through Operation Turquoise where they established a "safe zone" in the south-west of the country. On 21 August 1994, French troops left Rwanda, ending their highly controversial mission there. In the same year, South Africa held its first democratic election. With the process of re-constructing post-apartheid society, little attention was given to the Rwandan genocide.