Wounded refugees fleeing Rwanada. Goma, Zaire. 1994

During the 1994 crisis one million people fled from Rwanda into neighbouring countries. The murder of Rwanda's Hutu President on April 6th 1994 signalled the start of genocide. Radio stations began pumping out violent appeals for Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbours. The United Nations estimate that in 100 days, beginning in April 1994, as, many as 800,000 men, women and children of the majority Tutsi tribe were, shot, strangled, bludgeoned, burned, or hacked to death, by their Hutu rivals.When the Tutsi Patriotic Front defeated the Hutu government forces, an exodus of Hutu refugees fled across their border to the town of Goma in neighbouring Zaire to escape certain death from Tutsis thirsting for revenge. The one million refugees driven from their homes by death squads could not, have picked a more inhospitable place to seek sanctuary, they were denied food and shelter, and forced to camp on volcanic rock. As international aid agencies struggled to cope, over 50,000 died from cholera.