Rwanda Refugees, 1994 – 1997

In 1994, in the wake of the genocide in Rwanda, during which hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutu were systematically massacred, one and a half million refugees left Rwanda for makeshift camps in Tanzania and former Zaire. The victory of the new Tutsi-dominated RPF government in Rwanda led many Hutus to fear reprisals for their part in the genocide. Many of the individuals responsible for the genocide found refuge in the vast refugee camps. 


 In former Zaire, the camps were massively over-crowded and poorly located, sited in the shadow of an active volcano, without access to clean water. An epidemic of cholera swept through the camps, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of refugees, many of them women and children.







A displaced Hutu girl waits in an IDP camp near Bujumbura. Burundi has experienced similar devastating ethnic conflict to its neighbour Rwanda resulting in many thousands being killed or displaced.