Juvénal Habyarimana (March 8, 1937 – April 6, 1994) served as the second President of the Republic of Rwanda, holding office from 1973 until his death in 1994.
Habyarimana rose to power on July 5, 1973, following a bloodless military coup that overthrew the country's first president, Grégoire Kayibanda. He subsequently established the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (MRND) as the country's sole legal political party. His presidency, which lasted over two decades, was characterized by a centralized administration and deep-seated ethnic tensions between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority.
In the early 1990s, Habyarimana’s government faced internal pressure for democratization and an external armed conflict initiated by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). This period led to the negotiation of the Arusha Accords, a set of agreements intended to end the civil war by creating a power-sharing government.
On April 6, 1994, the aircraft carrying Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down by surface-to-air missiles as it prepared to land at Kigali International Airport. All passengers on board were killed. This event served as the immediate catalyst for the Rwandan Genocide, during which an estimated 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed. While several investigations have been conducted into the assassination, the identity of the perpetrators remains a subject of historical and legal debate.
