Rwanda is a small landlocked country located in Central Africa with a population of around 12.2 million people. The economy of Rwanda is largely dependent on services, industry and agriculture, with its GDP per capita estimated at US$810 in 2017. In terms of foreign relations, Rwanda has strong ties to other countries in the region such as Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo as well as other countries around the world. It is also a member of the United Nations, African Union (AU) and East African Community (EAC). In terms of politics, Rwanda has a semi-presidential republic which includes two major parties: Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and Social Democratic Party (PSD). The Parliament consists of 80 members who are elected by popular vote every five years. In 2017, RPF won majority in parliamentary elections under President Paul Kagame’s leadership. See militarynous for Rwanda military and defense.
Yearbook 2017
Rwanda. According to Countryaah.com, Rwanda President Paul Kagame was reelected for a third term in the August presidential election. The outcome was considered given in advance and Kagame himself described the choice as a “formality”. He received just over 98% of the vote, according to the Election Commission. Kagame had two approved challengers: Frank Habineza of the Greens and independent Philippe Mpayimana. Kagame’s African government colleagues are also believed to have been confident of his re-election when in July they appointed him President of the African Union (AU) for the year 2018. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for frequently used acronyms and abbreviations related to as well as country profile of Rwanda.
Both Habineza and Mpayimana stated that they were exposed to threats and harassment. So did another independent candidate, businesswoman and activist Diane Shima Rwigara. But she did not even get a candidate because she was not considered to have collected enough approved signatures. Shortly after she announced in May that she would be posting, nude pictures were published on her on social media. She stated that they were manipulated.
In September, Rwigara was arrested along with several supporters and members of her family, as well as leading representatives of the opposition party FDU-Inkingi. Rwigara is alleged to have forged signatures in support of his candidacy and to plan a rebellion. The proposal showed that Kagame’s government could not withstand criticism, among others, the human rights group Human Rights Watch. In October, the same organization published a report documenting how the military imprisoned people suspected of engaging with armed groups. They were held in military camps without charges and subjected to torture and ill-treatment to force confessions.
The International Monetary Fund lowered its forecast for the country’s growth from 6.2 to 5.2% for 2017, but considered the economy to accelerate in 2018. Finance Minister Claver Gatete expected that tourism, mining and oil exploration would contribute. According to the World Bank, the damping was due to drought, weak export prices and a construction boom sounded.
Stockholm District Court opened a trial in September against a 49-year-old Rwandan-born man for genocide. The trial is the third of its kind in Sweden. In February, Svea High Court set a life sentence for another Swedish-Rwandan man for similar crimes.
Rwanda announced in November that the country was prepared to receive 30,000 migrants stranded in Libya and risked being sold as slaves. The play came shortly after a well-publicized report on slave auctions in Libya broadcast by the broadcasting company CNN.
RWANDA and URUNDI. – Area and population. – The total area of the two territories under Belgian trust is 54,172 km 2, of which 26,338 belong to Rwanda and 27,834 to Urundi. The total population in 1959 was 4,847,931 residents, of which 8127 Europeans and 2869 Asian. The seat of the governor, Usumbura, in Urundi, had 42,961 residents in 1959, of which 3935 were Europeans; the two capitals, Kigali and Kitega, had 2900 and 2100 residents respectively. in 1957.
Economic conditions. – Breeding, which is always of great importance for the economy of these regions, included, in 1958, 966.433 cattle, 531.317 sheep and 1.698.412 goats. Several crops of industrial interest have been developed, among which the main ones are those of coffee (40,515 ha, with 204,000 q of product in 1958), cotton (7000 ha, with 20,000 q of fiber and 30,000 q of seeds in 1958), palm oil (7516 ha), pyrethrum (1205 ha), cinchona (576 ha), etc. More than 41% of the area is arable and woody crops, over 32% is permanent meadows and pastures. There is also a not negligible mining activity, which mainly consists in the extraction of cassiterite, columbite, tantalum, tungsten, beryllium, etc.
Communications. – The roadways at the end of 1958 had 12.100 km of development.
History. – At the end of the Second World War the mandate regime, to which Rwanda-Urundi had been subjected in 1920, was transformed into a trustee regime, on the basis of art. 77 of the United Nations Charter, also entrusted to Belgium. Even in the new regime, Rwanda-Urundi continued to be administratively united to the Belgian Congo, as it had done since 21 August 1925, and continued to have the previous constitutional status, that is, the governor, assisted by the “Council of the General Vice-Government of Rwanda-Urundi “, an advisory body of 22 all European members. In 1951 the Belgian government drew up a ten-year plan for the economic and social development of the territory, and called a native to be part of the Council of the vice-government. If visiting missions sent by the UN Protection Council they took note of the Belgian effort to improve the economic situation of the territory, but did not approve its tendency to exclude indigenous people from effective participation in the public administration, which was one of the commitments imposed by the trusteeship charter. The Belgian government, rejecting the suggestion given to it to implement the autonomy process of Rwanda-Urundi in 25 years, limited itself to creating local representative councils, elected in July 1952, and in March 1954 to raising the indigenous representatives in the council to five. of the vice-general government. The independence of the Congo could not fail to have repercussions in Rwanda-Urundi, so much so that the UN Assembly on December 5, 1960 recommended that a definitive date be set for the end of the fiduciary administration by Belgium and the implementation of independence. Meanwhile, the two units, Rwanda and Urundi, had each obtained their own administrations and the first, had chosen a republican form, while Urundi had preferred the traditional monarchical form with the mwani (king) Mwambutsa II. On August 5, 1961, the Belgian authorities announced the implementation of autonomy in 1961 and independence immediately thereafter, and in September the elections were held under the surveillance of the UN; these had not brought about any institutional or political change and in the Urundi the son of the sovereign, Charles Louis Rwagasore, had assumed power, who had reserved the portfolio of the affairs common to the two territories. A nationalist element, linked to the Lumumbist leaders of the Congo, he was killed by a stranger on October 13, 1961.