Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Rwanda and Burundi, each with a population of just under 12 million, are Africa’s most densely inhabited countries. Here, Tutsi pastoralists from the north subjugated Hutu farmers, who had themselves made serfs of the local Twa people. Belgian colonial rulers promoted the minority Tutsi population at the expense of the Hutu majority, and nothing changed following independence in the early 1960s. Not until three decades later did the oppressed majority finally erupt in the horrific genocide of 1994, when almost one million Rwandans were slaughtered in 100 days. Although Rwanda has been stabilized and is one of the fastest-growing African economies (7 percent annually over the past decade), it still relies on a narrow export base of coffee and tea—while two-thirds of the population live in grinding poverty. Unfortunately, the longstanding conflict continues to simmer in this corner of East Africa, having spilled over into the DRCongo in the form of armed combat to control strategic minerals, particularly diamonds and coltan (a valuable mineral used in mobile phones and other electronic devices)." [Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 17th Edition, p. 311]