Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira

The evening of 6 April 1994

On the evening of 6 April 1994, a Falcon 50 returning from a regional meeting in Dar es Salaam was struck by surface-to-air missiles while approaching Kigali airport. Twelve people aboard were killed.

Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana died alongside Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira, who had attended the same meeting and chose to fly back on the faster aircraft rather than his own. Rwandan army chief of staff Déogratias Nsabimana, other passengers and the French crew were also killed.

Twenty minutes, then one hour

About twenty minutes after the crash, Rwandan soldiers blocked Belgian UNAMIR personnel at the airport. Within an hour, troops were surrounding the home of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, the senior surviving constitutional official.

Colonel Théoneste Bagosora chaired the senior-officer meeting held after the crash and rejected repeated proposals that constitutional authority pass to her.

Soldiers and militia erected roadblocks across Kigali, evacuated politicians loyal to Habyarimana and confined or began hunting opposition leaders. The first reported killing of a government official occurred around midnight.

Who fired the missiles is still unresolved

The identities and institutional affiliation of the people who fired or ordered the missiles remain unresolved and politically disputed. No reliable account establishes as settled fact that either the RPF or Hutu extremists shot down the plane.

Responsibility for the attack is a separate question from responsibility for the genocide. Extensive evidence identifies the organisers and perpetrators who exploited it, and the preparations — weapons distribution, lists, incitement — predated 6 April.

Killings of Tutsi and opposition figures began before dawn, which is why some sources date the genocide's start to 6 April; 7 April is the conventional date for the start of the massive, organised campaign.