Hotel Rwanda masses of refugees and militia to reach safety behind Tutsi rebel lines. The film is set in 1994 during the Rwandan Genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people, mainly Tutsi, were killed by Hutu extremists. During that year, Rwanda's population of seven million was composed of two major groups: Hutu (approximately 85%), and Tutsi (14%). In the early 1990s, Hutu extremists within Rwanda's political elite blamed the entire Tutsi minority population for the country's economic and political problems. Tutsi civilians were also accused of supporting a Tutsi-dominated rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front. On 6 April 1994, a plane carrying
Kangura 1993 issue stated that a Hutu soldier angry over the Arusha agreement would soon assassinate the president. The January 1994 issue predicted that Habyarimana would be killed in March. "Kangura" had stopped publishing by 6 April 1994, when the plane carrying Presidents Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi was shot down over Kigali. This sparked the genocide. Over 800,000 people were killed, mostly Tutsis but including Hutu moderates and Hutus who attempted to protect Tutsi from the militias. Hassan Ngeze, the founder, editor and accountant for "Kangura" fled the country as the RPF took control. He was arrested in 1997