RWANDA – GEOGRAPHY

RWANDA – GEOGRAPHY

News: Rwanda counts cost after floods, thousands left homeless

What's in the news?

●       Torrential rains caused flooding in western and northern Rwanda, killing at least 129 people.

●       The government was racing emergency supplies to the worst hit areas, where evacuees are sheltering in tents.

Rwanda:

●       It is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge.

●       Capital - Kigali.

●       It is highly elevated, giving it the sobriquet "land of a thousand hills", with its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the southeast, with numerous lakes throughout the country.

Population composition:

●       Hutus – majority

●       Tutsi – minority

Other key points:

●       Ethnic strife between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi factions peaked in 1994.

●       Civil war and genocide at that time left Rwanda’s economy and social fabric in shambles.