There were a number of events leading up to the Rwandan genocide, but the most immediate one was the assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994. Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down as it approached the airport in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Habyarimana's death was the starting point for the genocide, as it sparked a wave of violence and retaliation that eventually led to the deaths of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The exact perpetrators of Habyarimana's assassination are not known, but it is widely believed that Hutu extremists ordered the attack as part of their plan to eradicate the Tutsi minority in Rwanda.
