Rwanda will begin commemorating 30 years on Sunday since the 1994 genocide that left 800,000 people dead, most of them from the Tutsi ethnic minority. For three decades, researchers have been investigating what happened, carefully detailing accounts from the witnesses and survivors of the last mass slaughter of the 20th century.
In just 100 days, more than 800,000 people were massacred in Rwanda beginning on April 7, 1994. For three months, Hutu forces – including the army, Interahamwe militias and ordinary citizens – used guns, machetes and clubs to kill fellow Rwandans. Although most of the victims were Tutsis, who were referred to as "inyenzi" ("cockroaches" in the Kinyarwanda language) by their assassins, Hutus were also killed.
