In 1993, tensions ran high in Rwanda. The following year, the country would be the site of a horrific genocide that would tear the country apart and have spill-over effects on its neighbours. That explosion of violence would be the culmination of years of tensions and intermittent conflict between two of Rwanda’s main ethnic groups, the Hutu and Tutsi. Prior to gaining its independence from Belgium in 1962, the country had been led for many years by a Tutsi monarchy. A Hutu-led uprising in the late 1950s and early 1960s culminated in the abolition of the monarchy, which was replaced by a Hutu-dominated government that held power for several decades. The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a dissident group, began to take shape in the late 1970s among exiled Tutsis in Uganda. In 1990, it launched an offensive against the Rwandan government, triggering a civil war that lasted until mid-1994. The government entered into a ceasefire agreement with the RPF in July 1992, but by the end of January 1993 political and inter-ethnic violence had ramped up again. In February, RPF forces in the north attacked government forces along the ceasefire line and drew to within 25 kilometres of the capital. Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled the fighting, bringing the number of internally displaced people to around a million. A new ceasefire followed in March, and the Arusha Peace Agreement – meant to put an end to the civil war – was signed in early August. Implementation of the agreement met with delays and resistance, however, and the civil war dragged on into 1994. The Rwandan genocide was to be the final act of that conflict: this spate of violence, which would last around 100 days – from early April until early July 1994 – would ultimately claim over 500,000 victims, mostly among the Tutsi minority.

In 1993, the year Antoine was killed, the ICRC quickly responded to the surge in displaced people following the violence in February. We expanded our food aid programme in conjunction with the Rwandan Red Cross, and we coordinated with the Belgian Red Cross to bolster our non-food relief operations. Food shortages continued to plague the country throughout the year owing to various distribution problems and the influx of refugees. On a positive note, by the end of September, around two-thirds of the displaced people were able to return to their homes. The ongoing conflict also gave rise to extensive medical needs, which our teams helped to address by evacuating the wounded to local hospitals, delivering medical equipment and drugs, and providing surgical support. Together with the Belgian Red Cross, we set up two temporary mobile clinics where displaced people could get basic health care until local medical facilities were back up and running. Our delegates also sought to restore contact between refugees in Rwanda and their families back home, and between displaced people in camps on both sides of the frontline.