Hutu and 14% of residents in Rwanda and Burundi, respectively. The Twa pygmies, the smallest of the two countries' principal populations, also share language and culture with the Hutu and Tutsi. However, they are distinguished by a considerably shorter stature. The Hutu are believed to have first emigrated to the Great Lake region from West Africa in the great Bantu expansion. Various theories have emerged to explain the purported physical differences between them and their fellow Bantu-speaking neighbors, the Tutsi. One such thesis, largely based on oral tradition, posits that the Tutsi experienced some admixture with or were partially descended from
Rwandan genocide remember is that there was a genocide. There was an attempt to eliminate Tutsis – men, women, and children – and to erase any memory of their existence." Out of a population of 7.3 million people, 84% of whom were Hutu, 15% Tutsi and 1% Twa, the official figures published by the Rwandan government estimated the number of victims of the genocide to be 1,070,014 in 100 days. It is estimated that about 300,000 Tutsi survived the genocide. Thousands of widows, many of whom were subjected to rape, are now HIV-positive. There were about 400,000 orphans and nearly 85,000 of