[5][6][7] The RPF have ruled the country since then as a one-party state, and its current leader, Paul Kagame, became the president of Rwanda in 2000, and remains in office.

[15] Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, with over 14 million people living in a comparatively small territory of 26,338 square kilometers.

[17][18] When the European colonialists arrived in Rwanda (Germans from 1899 to 1916 and Belgians from 1916 to 1962), the country lost all political, economic, and cultural independence.

[20][21] The Rwandese Alliance for National Unity (RANU) was created in December 1979 in Nairobi, Kenya, by young Rwandan Tutsi refugee intellectuals, most of whom had grown up in Uganda.

[22] Though primarily a forum for intellectual discussion, it became militant after Milton Obote's election in 1980, resulting in many Tutsi refugees joining Yoweri Museveni in fighting the Ugandan Bush War.

[27] Rwandan refugees formed a large number of NRA officers because they had joined the rebellion early and thus had accumulated more experience.

Six months after taking power, Museveni reversed the decades-old legal regime and declared that Rwandans who had resided in Uganda would be entitled to citizenship after 10 years.

[28] In December 1987, RANU held its seventh congress in Kampala and renamed itself the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) stands for Unity, Sovereignty and Security, Economy, Democratic Leadership, Fighting Corruption, Eliminating All Causes of Refugee Status, International Relations, Social Welfare, and Fighting Genocide and Its Ideology;[29] the new RPF, dominated by Rwandan intellectuals who were in exile from different countries and military officers, was far more strong and ambitious than the original RANU.

[30] On 1 October 1990, the Rwandan government led by Juvénal Habyarimana with the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) party which was known to rule with pro-Hutu policies, was invaded by the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA), the wing army force of RPF led by Major-General Fred Gisa Rwigema, the starting of the Rwandan Civil War.

Thereafter the RPA resorted to guerrilla attacks, focusing on the Byumba and Ruhengeri areas, and gained control of much of the north of the country in 1992.

[39][40] After the RPF stopped the genocide and took control of the country, in 1994, it formed a government of national unity headed by a president, Pasteur Bizimungu.

Under his leadership, the Rwandan government has invented and practiced unique national programs in ensuring self-reliance including Community work (Umuganda) and Gacaca courts.