Kagame was born to a Tutsi family in southern Rwanda . When he was two years old , the Rwandan Revolution ended centuries of Tutsi political dominance ; his family fled to Uganda , where he spent the rest of his childhood . In the 1980s , Kagame fought in Yoweri Museveni 's rebel army , becoming a senior Ugandan army officer after Museveni 's military victories carried him to the Ugandan presidency . Kagame joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front ( RPF ) , which invaded Rwanda in 1990 . RPF leader Fred Rwigyema died early in the war and Kagame took control . By 1993 , the RPF controlled significant territory in Rwanda and a ceasefire was negotiated . The assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana set off the genocide , in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu . Kagame resumed the civil war , and ended the genocide with a military victory
assassination
Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira
Paul Kagame