Kigali exploit the fact that the government forces were concentrating on the genocide rather than the fight for Kigali. The RPF took control of Kigali on 4 July, a date now commemorated as the Liberation Day national holiday. Although damaged, the city's structure has recovered. Kigali is located in the centre of Rwanda, at . The city is coterminous with the province of Kigali, one of the five provinces of Rwanda introduced in 2006 as part of a restructuring of local government in the country. The city has boundaries with the Northern, Eastern and Southern provinces. The city is divided into
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