Juvénal Habyarimana
Full Name
Juvénal Habyarimana
Date of Birth
March 8, 1937
Place of Birth
Gasiza, Gisenyi Province, Ruanda-Urundi (now in Rwanda)
Date of Death
April 6, 1994
Place of Death
Education
- Studied humanities and mathematics at St. Paul’s College
- Studied medicine at Lovanium University, both in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Spouses Names
- Married in 1963
Children Names
Not detailed in the provided sources.
Parents Names
- Father: Jean-Baptiste Ntibazilikana
- Mother: Suzanne Nyirazuba
Juvénal Habyarimana was a Rwandan military officer and politician who served as the second president of Rwanda from 1973 until his assassination in 1994. He seized power in a bloodless coup, overthrowing President Grégoire Kayibanda, and established a one-party state under the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (MRND). Habyarimana’s rule was characterized by relative stability and economic progress but also by ethnic tensions and human rights abuses. In 1990, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched a civil war against his government. After three years of conflict, Habyarimana signed the Arusha Accords in 1993 as a peace agreement with the RPF. However, his assassination in 1994, when his plane was shot down near Kigali, ignited ethnic tensions in the region and helped spark the genocide against the Tutsi, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 800,000 Rwandans. Habyarimana’s death and the subsequent genocide marked one of the darkest periods in Rwanda’s history. The circumstances surrounding the downing of his plane remain a subject of debate and investigation