In April 1994 President Habyarimana was assassinated , when his plane was shot down near Kigali Airport . This was the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide , in which 500,000 – 1,000,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed in well-planned attacks on the orders of the interim government . Opposition politicians based in Kigali were killed on the first day of the genocide , and the city then became the setting for fierce fighting between the army ( mostly Hutu ) and the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front ( RPF ) . On 8 April , Rwandan government forces attacked the RPF base in the parliament building from several directions , but RPF troops successfully fought back . The RPF then began an attack from the north on three fronts , seeking to link up quickly with its isolated troops in Kigali . The RPF advanced steadily , capturing large areas of the countryside to the north and east of Kigali , but avoiding an attack on the city itself , because the city was too heavily defended . They instead conducted manoeuvres designed to encircle Kigali and cut off supply routes , as well as capturing the rest of the country . By mid-June , the RPF encirclement was complete , and they began fighting for the city itself . The government forces had superior manpower and weapons but the RPF fought tactically , and were able to exploit the fact that the government forces were concentrating on the genocide rather than the fight for Kigali . The RPF took control of Kigali on 4 July , a date now commemorated as the Liberation Day national holiday
Rwandan genocide
Rwandan genocide
Kigali