April 7, 1994 the Hutus, the dominant ethnicity of Rwanda, declared all of the Tutsi minority group traitors and encouraged citizens to kill all the Tutsi they knew. Rwanda was originally one of Belgium's colonies and when Belgium ruled they heavily favored Tutsis despite their minority status. This desparity caused ethnic tensions to arise which would later be the downfall of their country. When the plane carrying their moderate president and other diplomats was shot down, Hutu extremists immediately seized the opportunity to initiate a genocide of terrifying proportions. The death toll was around 600,000, 500,000 of which being Tutsis. https://www.history.com/topics/africa/rwandan-genocide, The Death Toll of the Rwandan Genocide: A Detailed Analysis for Gikongoro Province | Cairn International Edition (cairn-int.info)