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Rwanda 1994 pp 56–129Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The RPF’s War

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Part of the book series: Rethinking Political Violence Series ((RPV))

Abstract

On 1 October 1990, a 4000-strong division of the national army of Uganda calling itself the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)1 invaded northern Rwanda.2 Three days later they were within seventy kilometres of the capital, Kigali.3 Belgian and French paratroopers were dispatched to Kigali but did not engage in combat. It was the intervention of 500 elite forces of the Presidential Guard of former Zaïre that helped the Rwandan army, the Forces Armées Rwandaises (FAR), to turn the RPF back over the Ugandan border.4 A cease-fire was agreed in late October, and by the end of that month Radio Rwanda announced that the war was over and victory achieved.5 The victory announcement proved to be premature.

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Notes

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© 2014 Barrie Collins

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Collins, B. (2014). The RPF’s War. In: Rwanda 1994. Rethinking Political Violence Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137022325_4

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