Nyina wa paul kagame biography

1957—

President, military commander

Paul Kagame emerged as an internationally renowned figure during his leadership of the military resistance that cut short the Rwandan genocide in July 1994.

The genocide had marked the horrifying culmination of decades of ethnically framed massacres in post-independence Rwanda between the majority ethnic group of Hutu, who totalled roughly 85 percent of the population, and the minority ethnic Tutsi, who constituted around 15 percent.

Upon successfully leading the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) to victory, Kagame became vice-president of Rwanda, a formidable reponsibility after over 800,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu had been systematically massacred during a three-month span in one of the world's poorest countries.

In 2000 he was appointed president but had since been the subject of intensifying criticism regarding his government's record in terms of human rights abuses and profiteering among the elite.