Question

What event sparked the Rwandan Civil War?
A. The election of a Hutu president
B. A Tutsi revolutionary group overthrowing the government
C. The Hutu president's plane being shot down
D. The Rwandan Genocide

Answer 1

Hint: The Rwandan civil war fought between the Rwandan armed forces representing the country's government and the Rebel forces of Rwandan patriotic front from 1990 to 1994 the war arose because of the long-running dispute between the two groups of Rwanda population, Hutu and Tutsi.

Complete answer: Rwanda is a small country and has one of the highest population density in Africa. The population comprises 85% which were Hutu and the rest were Tutsi. During Rwanda's colonial period the ruling Belgians favoured the minority Tutsis over the Hutus. This led to the tendency of the few to oppress the many and created tensions and violence between the two groups. In 1973 major general Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu came to power. He was elected president in 1978 and re-elected in 1983 and 1988. In 1990 forces of the RPF consisting of mostly Tutsi refugees invaded Rwanda from Uganda. The president accused the Tutsi residents of being a part of it and officials directed the massacres of the Tutsi which resulted in killing hundreds of them in 1990 and 1993.
The ceasefire resulted in the negotiations between the government and the RPF in 1992 and the President signed an agreement in 1993 calling for the creation of a transition government that will also include the RPF. This power-sharing decision by the government angered Hutu extremists and they took a horrible action to prevent it.
In 1994, April 6, a plane carrying the Hutu president Habyarimana and Burundi’s president was shot down over the capital of Kigali. Within an hour of a plane crash, the Hutu militia groups set up roadblocks and barricades and began slaughtering Tutsis. The government officials of the Habyarimana parties also sponsored the genocide and rewarded the killers with foods and drinks. All these events raged the Civil war in Rwanda alongside the genocide. Later the Habyarimana party's which played an important role in the genocide was outlawed.
Thus, the correct answer is option-C.

Note: Following the RPF victory after the end of the civil war in Rwanda, millions of Hutu fled to the refugee camps in the neighbouring countries. The camps were crowded and thousands of Hutu refugees died of disease epidemics such as dysentery and cholera.