Alison Des Forges (née Liebhafsky; August 20, 1942 – February 12, 2009) was an American historian and human rights activist who specialized in the African Great Lakes region, particularly the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

[5] Describing the politics of the court during the reign of Yuhi Musinga, it shows how divisions among different groups in Rwanda shaped their responses to colonial governments, missionaries and traders.

She died on February 12, 2009, in the air crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407, en route from Newark, New Jersey, to her home in Buffalo, New York.

[9] In April 1994, she began calling fellow activist Monique Mujawamariya in Rwanda every half-hour, and could hear the gunfire approaching steadily closer with each conversation.

[10] Mujawmariya lived, but her reports meant that[11] Des Forges was one of the first outsiders to observe that a full-blown genocide was underway in Rwanda, and afterwards led a team of researchers to establish the facts.