Rwanda in 1959. They massacred numerous Tutsi and ultimately established an independent, Hutu-dominated state in 1962. A 1973 military coup saw a change of leadership, but pro-Hutu policy remained. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a civil war in 1990. Social tensions erupted in the 1994 genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to 1 million Tutsi and moderate Hutu. The RPF ended the genocide with a military victory. Rwanda's economy suffered heavily in wake of the 1994 genocide, but has since strengthened. The economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture. Coffee and tea are the major cash crops
Sainte-Famille Church genocide of 1994 thousands of Tutsi and Hutu took refuge in the church and many were massacred, following the death of President Juvénal Habyarimana. Witnesses said that the priest in charge of the church, Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, armed himself and helped Hutu militias take people from the church to be killed. Munyeshyaka was responsible for many of the killings, agreeing to "let the militia pick off those they wanted every now and then." Wenceslas Munyeshyaka hated the Tutsis and called them the "inyenzis". Following this incident and similar ones in other churches, many of the Rwandan people converted to Islam.