Kigali

Kigali, capital city of Rwanda, located in the hilly plateau in the center of the country, just south of the equator. It is situated at an altitude of 1,540 m (5,053 ft) and has a mild climate all year. A major highway connects Kigali with Burundi to the south and Uganda to the north. An international airport and a technical college are here.

Kigali was part of German East Africa from 1899 to 1916. In 1923 it passed to Belgian control as part of the Ruanda-Urundi territory administered by Belgium for the League of Nations from 1923 to 1946 and the United Nations (UN) from 1946 to 1962. When the trust territory was divided in 1962 to form the independent nations of Rwanda and Burundi, Kigali became the capital of Rwanda.

In April 1994 Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed in a suspicious plane crash near Kigali. After the crash, violence erupted in Kigali between Rwanda's two main ethnic groups, the Hutu and Tutsi. Under the terms of a peace accord reached in 1993 between Habyarimana and the Tutsi-dominated rebel movement, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the United Nations had already sent peacekeeping troops to Rwanda. However, at the height of the violence, the UN forces, lacking a mandate to protect civilians, abandoned the capital, and many residents were killed or forced to flee. People returned gradually, and the city’s damaged infrastructure and buildings were repaired. Population (2003 estimate) 656,000.