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
1996 Burundian coup d'état first democratic presidential election on 27 June 1993, which was won by Hutu Melchior Ndadaye. On 21 October, Ndadaye was assassinated, sparking the Burundi Civil War between Hutu and Tutsi groups. Moderate Hutu Cyprien Ntaryamira became president in February 1994, but both he and Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana were assassinated in April that year, an event that sparked the Rwandan Genocide. Ntaryamira was succeeded by another Hutu leader, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya. On 21 July 1996, Hutu rebels attacked a refugee camp in the country and killed more than 300 people. On 23 July, President Ntibantunganya went into hiding at the home