The crash that blew Rwanda into flames

TODAY IN HISTORY

Shortly before 8:20 pm Rwanda time, the presidential jet circled once around Kigali International Airport before coming in for final approach in clear skies.

A weekly flight by a Belgian C-130 Hercules carrying UNAMIR troops returning from leave had been scheduled to land before the presidential jet, but was waved off to give the president priority.

A surface-to-air missile struck one of the wings of the Dassault Falcon, then a second missile hit its tail.

The plane erupted into flames in mid-air before crashing into the garden of the presidential palace, exploding on impact, killing both Juvenal Habyarimana (Rwanda) and Cyprien Ntaryamira (Burundi).

The death of the two presidents and all the crew members aboard on April 6, 1994, exactly 24 years now, marked the beginning of an unpredecendented killing that saw the slaughter of over 800,000 people in Rwanda, in the genocide that lasted 100 days.

About four years earlier, in 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army invaded northern Rwanda from Uganda.

Most of the RPF fighters were either refugees or the sons of refugees who had fled ethnic purges by the Hutu government in the late 1950s.

The attempt to overthrow the government failed, prompting a negotiation, which started in May 1992, which resulted in the signing in August 1993 of the Arusha Accords to create a power-sharing government.

The UN force had been deployed in Kigali and major towns to oversee the power sharing process. Even the rebel side had been allowed a contingent with in the city centre of Kigali.

However, all this came to a halt as a killing spree set in until July 4, 1994 when RPF captured Kigali and took control of the whole city, before taking over the whole country on July 18.

The people who died in the plane:

    - Juvénal Habyarimana, President of Rwanda

    - Cyprien Ntaryamira, President of Burundi

    - Bernard Ciza, Burundian Minister of Public Works

    - Cyriaque Simbizi, Burundian Minister of Communication

    - Maj. Gen. Déogratias Nsabimana, Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Army

    - Maj. Thaddée Bagaragaza, responsible for the "maison militaire" of the Rwandan president

    - Col. Elie Sagatwa, Member of the special secretariat of the Rwandan president, Chief of the Military Cabinet of the Rwandan president

    - Juvénal Renaho, foreign affairs advisor to the Rwandan president

    - Dr. Emmanuel Akingeneye, personal physician to the Rwandan president

    French aircraft crew:

    - Jacky Héraud (pilot)

    - Jean-Pierre Minaberry (co-pilot)

    - Jean-Michel Perrine (flight engineer)