Rwanda’s recent history is dominated by genocide. Long-standing tensions between the majority ethnic Hutu group and the Tutsi minority, which were fuelled by colonialism, have manifested themselves in violent clashes over many decades, leading to the 1994 genocide when a million people died and more than two million fled to neighbouring countries.

In 1996, many thousands of these refugees began to return home.

Their return has placed an already-damaged country under even greater stress.

Rwanda is still a very poor country.  Farmland is infertile and in short supply and suffers from erratic rainfall. Ethnic tensions within Rwanda and with neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo create uncertainty.  

The country is working to rebuild its economy, with coffee and tea production being among its main sources of foreign exchange.