Tutsi which the Hutu then in power killed an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 people, largely of Tutsi origin. Victorious in the aftermath of the genocide, the RPF came to power in July 1994. Tutsis speak Rwanda-Rundi as their native language. It is a member of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger–Congo family. Rwanda-Rundi is subdivided into the Kinyarwanda and Kirundi dialects, which have been standardized as official languages of Burundi and Rwanda. Rwanda-Rundi is also spoken as a mother tongue by the Hutu and Twa. Additionally, many Tutsis speak French, the third official language of Rwanda and Burundi, as a lingua franca. The
Origins of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa communities (17.7% Afro-Asiatic genes found in the mixed Hutu/Tutsi population). While most supporters of the migration theory are also supporters of the "Hamitic theory", namely that the Tutsi came from the Horn of Africa, a later theory proposed that the Tutsi had instead migrated from nearby interior East Africa, and that the physical differences were the result of natural selection in a dry arid climate over millennia. Among the most detailed theories was one put forward by Jean Hiernaux, based on studies of blood factors and archeology. Noting the fossil record of a tall people with narrow facial features several