Paul Kagamé
| Paul Kagame | |
|---|---|
Kagame visiting the South Korean city of Busan in October 2014.
|
|
| President of Rwanda | |
|
Assumed office 22 April 2000 Acting: 24 March 2000 – 22 April 2000 |
|
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Pasteur Bizimungu |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
23 October 1957 Tambwe, Ruanda-Urundi (now Nyarutovu, Rwanda) |
| Political party | Rwandan Patriotic Front |
| Spouse(s) | Jeannette Nyiramongi |
| Children | 4, including Ange |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Paul Kagame (/kəˈɡɑːmeɪ/; born 23 October 1957) is the sixth and current President of Rwanda having taken office in 2000 when his predecessor, Pasteur Bizimungu, resigned. Kagame previously commanded the rebel force that ended the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. He was considered Rwanda's de facto leader when he served as Vice President and Minister of Defence from 1994 to 2000.
Kagame was born to a Tutsi family in southern Rwanda. When he was two years old, the Rwandan Revolution ended centuries of Tutsi political dominance; his family fled to Uganda, where he spent the rest of his childhood. In the 1980s, Kagame fought in Yoweri Museveni's rebel army, becoming a senior Ugandan army officer after Museveni's military victories carried him to the Ugandan presidency. Kagame joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which invaded Rwanda in 1990; leader Fred Rwigyema died early in the war and Kagame took control. By 1993, the RPF controlled significant territory in Rwanda and a ceasefire was negotiated. The assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was the starting point of the genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu. Kagame resumed the civil war, and ended the genocide with a military victory.
...
Wikipedia