École Antoine de Saint-Exupéry de Kigali École Antoine de Saint-Exupéry de Kigali The École Antoine de Saint-Exupéry de Kigali (EFASE), also known as the Kigali French School, is a school in Downtown Kigali, Rwanda. The school, with a capacity of 400 students, serves nursery ("maternelle") to upper secondary ("lycée") levels. The school was created in 1973. The school was closed from 1994 to 1998 due to deteriorated relations between the Governments of France and Rwanda following the Rwandan Genocide. In 2006, after France and Rwanda severed diplomatic relations, the Rwandan authorities forced the school to close. They gave a 72-hour deadline for the school to end
Kigali new independent nation, but Kigali was chosen because of its more central location. The city grew slowly during the following decades, but retained a small-town feel, with just 25,000 people and five paved roads by the early 1970s. On 6 July 1973 there was a bloodless military coup, in which minister of defence Juvénal Habyarimana overthrew ruling president Gregoire Kayibanda. Businesses closed for a few days, and troops patrolled across the city, but life had returned to normal and the army had left the streets by 11 July. In April 1994 President Habyarimana was assassinated, when his plane was shot