In 1994 more than 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis, were killed in Rwanda in an explosion of ethnic tension with the majority Hutu community. The genocide began after the death of the president in a plane crash on April 5. Here we present a selection of news reports, features and opinion articles on the tragedy from the Guardian's archives.
· Articles appear in chronological order
Violence erupted many times before April 1994:
04.01.90: Rwanda calls for aid to halt rebels
08.09.92: Rebels at the ready in fragile Rwanda truce
23.02.93: Rebels with a cause aim for conciliation
21.01.94: Prospects for piece
23.02.94: Tribal rampage feared after politicians killed
Rwandan PM killed as troops wreak carnage
April 8 1994: The Rwandan capital of Kigali descends into chaos as troops, presidential guards and gendarmes sweep through the suburbs killing the prime minister, UN peacekeepers and scores of civilians.
08.04.94, leader: Blood at the bottom of the barrel
Thousands massacred in Rwanda
April 9 1994: UN says factions agree to ceasefire.
UN troops stand by and watch carnage
April 12 1994: French and Belgian forces are evacuating expatriates but leaving members of the Tutsi minority to their fate, reports Mark Huband in Kigali.
Children flee to Burundi camps
July 5 1994: Six hundred Rwandan children are camping in a huge warehouse in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, after fleeing the southern Rwandan town of Butare.
Town whose senses are dead to slaughter
July 5 1994: Chris McGreal in Kibuye finds evidence everywhere of a terrible massacre, but the people still deny anything happened there.
No dignity in death for victims of border panic
July 19 1994: Chris McGreal sees the bodies of the dead amassed on the border of Ziare and Rwanda as refugees flee for their lives.
Rwandan apocalypse
July 23 1994: Clinton announces 'massive and immediate' aid increase, labelling Rwandan genocide the 'worst humanitarian crisis in a generation'.
Horror rises at way-stations to death
July 23 1994: Vision of hell as cholera stalks refugee camps. By Chris McGreal in Munigi Camp.
23.07.94, leader: The hell of reproach that is Goma
Death march for refugees on road to hell
July 25 1994: Thousands of refugees flee homewards as key border post is reopened.
Beyond despair
July 27 1994: Chris McGreal reports from Goma, Zaire, on the swiftest cross-border migration of modern times, compounded by the inadequacies of the west's response.
