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| Kigali marks 100 years of existence |  |
| In what can safely be referred to as the center of Africa is a country that has famously come to be known as, “The land of a thousand hills” or ‘Le pays de mille collines’ in French because of its hilly terrain. Kigali is the capital city of this small hilly nation that is also home to some of the few remaining famous mountain gorillas |
Kigali can be reached by air through the Kigali International airport at Kanombe or by road from the various border crossing points of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Tanzania. Various planes make flights to Kigali from Entebbe, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Addis Ababa and even Brussels.
This year Kigali is celebrating 100 years of existence. In its 100 years of existence, 1994 was the worst period when from April to July 1994 the country experienced the bloody 1994 Rwanda Genocide. The horrific event was kicked off in the capital city soon after the aircraft that was carrying the then president of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundi counterpart was shot down. The two were returning from a peace talks' session in Arusha Tanzania.
As soon as the plane came down, extremists Hutus set up road blocks in various parts of the city where identified Tutsi were brutally slaughtered. With a short spell of 100 days over 1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been killed. The blood bath was only stopped after the Ugandan backed Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army (RPF) took power in Kigali.
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The RPF forces led by a charismatic Paul Kagame went on to form a government of unity and embarked on a programme of unity and reconciliation. 13 years later, Rwanda is now a beacon of hope for other African nations to emulate. It has minimal levels of corruption where other African nations seem to be having an epidemic. A combination of zero tolerance to corruption and high levels of administrative austerity Rwanda has achieved significant development within a very short time. It has been touted by many writers as the Singapore of Africa.
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