Kigali

CAPITAL CITY OF Rwanda: Kigali
LANGUAGE OF Rwanda: English
CURRENCY OF Rwanda: Rwandan franc (RWF)
COMMENTS ABOUT Rwanda:
Rwanda - officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa
Cities : Kigali (capital), Butare, Gisenyi, Gitarama, Kibungo, Kibuye, Ruhengeri
Electricity : 220V/50Hz (European plug)
Calling Code : +250
Time Zone : UTC+2
In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the killing in July 1994, but approximately 2 million Hutu refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the former Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but about 10,000 that remain in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo have formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF tried in 1990. Despite substantial international assistance and political reforms - including Rwanda's first local elections in March 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in August and September 2003, respectively - the country continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural output, and ethnic reconciliation is complicated by the real and perceived Tutsi political dominance. Kigali's increasing centralization and intolerance of dissent, the nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across the border, and Rwandan involvement in two wars in recent years in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts to escape its bloody legacy.
CLIMATE OF Rwanda: Rwanda is a tropical country; its high elevation makes the climate temperate. In the mountains, frost and snow are possible. The average daily temperature near Lake Kivu, at an altitude of 1,463 m (4,800 feet) is 23°C (73°F).
RELIGION OF Rwanda: Roman Catholic 56.5%, Protestant 26%, Adventist 11.1%, Muslim 4.6%, indigenous beliefs 0.1%, none 1.7% (2001)
POPULATION OF Rwanda: 7,954,013 - estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2004 est.)>>>>>
CULTURA OF Rwanda: The pygmy Twa are considered one of the oldest races on earth, according to mitochondrial dNA analyses. Along with the Efé and other BaMbuti of the Ituri region, the BayAka of Central African Republic, the San (Bushmen) of Namibia, and the Hadzabe of Tanzania, they represent the remains of the some of the oldest cultures on earth. As with some of the other groups, some Twa still pursue a hunter-gatherer type of existence (in the Nyungwe Forest National Park), although the majority have been forced into menial positions in society with the ongoing loss of their land. With the new emphasis on "non-racialism" in Rwanda, their rights are even fewer and they occupy the fringes of Rwandan society.
ECONOMY OVERVIEW OF Rwanda: Rwanda is a poor rural country with about 90% of the population engaged in (mainly subsistence) agriculture. It is the most densely populated country in Africa; landlocked with few natural resources and minimal industry. Primary foreign exchange earners are coffee and tea. The 1994 genocide decimated Rwanda's fragile economic base, severely impoverished the population, particularly women, and eroded the country's ability to attract private and external investment. However, Rwanda has made substantial progress in stabilizing and rehabilitating its economy to pre-1994 levels, although poverty levels are higher now. GDP has rebounded, and inflation has been curbed. Export earnings, however, have been hindered by low beverage prices, depriving the country of much needed hard currency. Attempts to diversify into non-traditional agriculture exports such as flowers and vegetables have been stymied by a lack of adequate transportation infrastructure. Despite Rwanda's fertile ecosystem, food production often does not keep pace with population growth, requiring food to be imported. Rwanda continues to receive substantial aid money and was approved for IMF-World Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative debt relief in late 2000. But Kigali's high defense expenditures cause tension between the government and international donors and lending agencies.