Isaka–Kigali Standard Gauge Railway that both countries had agreed to change the railway design to accommodate electric locomotives which are faster than the original diesel-powered equipment. In April 2018, the same newspaper further reported that the World Bank had expressed its willingness to fund this project. In January 2018, the government of Rwanda allocated space in Ndera, approximately , by road, east of Kigali city center, on which the passenger terminal of the SGR will be built. The cargo terminal will be built in Masaka, another neighborhood, approximately , by road, south-east of the central business district of Kigali City. Rwanda has plans to
Kigali down near Kigali Airport. This was the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide, in which 500,000–1,000,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed in well-planned attacks on the orders of the interim government. Opposition politicians based in Kigali were killed on the first day of the genocide, and the city then became the setting for fierce fighting between the army (mostly Hutu) and the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). On 8 April, Rwandan government forces attacked the RPF base in the parliament building from several directions, but RPF troops successfully fought back. The RPF then began an attack from the north