So in the last 2 months or so I've become obsessed with East Africa (specifically Rwanda) and you guys will not believe the shit going down over there. It's real time warlord shit happening RIGHT FRICKING NOW.

This interest started after I saw a 4Chan green text about the Rwandan genocide.

I'm going give a quick overview of the Rwandan genocide for background and then explain what's happening now between Rwanda and the DR Congo.

The Rwandan Genocide

First, I highly recommend the book "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed" if you want a more in depth explanation.

In 1856 the first white person (a German) entered what is now known as Rwanda. Germany made it a colony but didn't really do much with it and turned it over to Belgium after WWI. At that time, it was a small area occupied by two tribes: a small number of Tutsi (who had cattle, were wealthy) and Hutu (majority population who were farmers and less well off). Tutsi generally ruled over Hutu due to their wealth but there wasn't really any ethnic strife between them.

Belgium took over in the 1930s from German which when race science was all the rage. Tutsi were tall, slim and wealthy (how I'm tryna be 💅🏻) so were put in charge of the country and ruled over the short stout Hutu majority. The Tutsi (essentially at Belgian gunpoint) forced Hutu to work long hours on public works (roads etc) to the point it resulted in deaths from famine due to neglecting their farms. This led to bad blood between the two groups which escalated upon Belgium giving Rwanda its freedom.

(Twa were Pygmy, 1% of population)

From the 1970s to 90s, the majority (85%) Hutu took over and made Tutsi second class citizens (for example, they were unable to access higher education). Small genocides (a few thousand Tutsi massacred) happened in rural areas as well.

In the 1990s, an anti-Tutsi political party called Hutu Power came to power. There was a civil war and many Tutsi fled to neighboring countries (Uganda, the DRC, Tanzania and Burundi). A military force of Tutsi was hiding out Uganda called the RPF/Rwandan Patriotic Front—led by a man named Paul Kagame (what we would consider a warlord). Essentially they were watching and waiting. Tribal relations were BAD.

At that time, most of Rwanda's GDP actually came from foreign aid (not kidding, like 60% of their GDP was aid) and there was increasing pressure to normalize relations with the Tutsi. A Tutsi Genocide in neighboring Burundi in 1993 further forced the hand of the Hutu Power president Habyarimqra to sign a treaty and make nice. Note: his wife was from a very prominent family of Hutu power supporters who wanted to genocide the Tutsi.

On April 6, 1994 his plane was shot down triggering the Rwandan Genocide. No one knows who did it but it was likely Hutu Power. They blamed the RPF (the exiled Tutsi rebels) and ignited the genocide. This was a 100 day spree which killed (maybe) 800k people—10% of the population of Rwanda. It was mostly Tutsi, Twa (pygmies who made up 1% of their population) and moderate Hutu who wouldn't participate in the killing. The genocide killed at a rate of 3x the Holocaust and was done mostly with machetes imported by the millions before it began. It was largely coordinated by radio station RTLM which read out names of Tutsi to kill each day. The national ID cards showed who was Tutsi and who was Hutu so roadblocks were set up and fleeing Tutsi were all killed. It was absolutely harrowing and I do not have the time to do it justice. Please consider reading the wiki page to get a sense of the violence.

Western powers did not intervene. Clinton didn't want to get involved because this was only one year after Black Hawk Down in Somalia. (Btw did anyone here see the Netflix documentary about it? It was really good) Belgium and France actually supported the genocidaires because they were the "legitimate" government. The UN fled and didn't return until it was over.

The genocide ended when Paul Kagame (the Tutsi warlord) invaded and bit by bit took over the country. He has been the dictator ever since. He outlawed tribal discrimination, updated the ID cards to exclude ethnicity and over the last 30 years Rwanda has prospered to become one of the safest and cleanest countries in Africa.

What the heck is happening now

After the genocide, hundreds of thousands of Hutu genocidaires fled to the Congo which resulted in the Great Lakes Refugee Crisis. Kagame allegedly invaded and killed several hundred thousand in revenge in what is called the Second Rwandan Genocide but we don't talk about that okay. Since then, most genocidaires (the ones who didn't flee to France 👀) have been hiding out in the DRC.

In the last several months SHIT HAS BEEN GOING DOWN on the border between the DRC and Rwanda. That area of the Congo has very valuable rare earth mines as well as a population of Congolese Tutsi who have been treated as outsiders for generations.

There are two groups that are fighting: a rebel Tutsi group funded by Rwanda called M23 and the Congolese army FARDC which has integrated the Genocidaires according to Paul Kagame. Kagame himself is playing coy about Rwandan support of M23 .

Per the Rwandan subreddit, there is a lot of disagreement. Some say Kagame is trying to get the rare earth minerals by supporting the rebel group M23, some say the Congo goes through this every 10 years and some are really incensed at how the Congolese Tutsi are treated as Rwandan invaders and they just want their rights.

Now M23 are not innocent at all. They have r*ped, pillaged and taken over mines in the eastern Congo. The FARDC has been unable to tame them despite a February ceasefire. Things are not slowing down at all.

This conflict has brought in other African nations with Seth Afrikan president (who was materially supporting the DR Congo) and Kagame were having a very public lovers quarrel just a few weeks ago.

Sec of State Marco Rubio was clear that the US wanted a ceasefire I mean it for real you guys I'm not kidding. The problem is that with the defunding of USAID Rwanda isn't really at the US' mercy about this. Trump is actually super popular in Rwanda but Kagame seems to be chill with escaping US influence.

I am unsure what will happen because I don't know enough about this part of the world to have good insight. I think East Africa is just doing East African things and M23 will take over a good bit of land and some mines but nothing much will truly happen or escalate. Rwanda will continue to prosper, everything will remain corrupt and war lords will continue to do warlord shit in the unstable areas. Nothing ever happens but it's very unstable and dramatic and thought I'd make a post.