- Title: UN-Rwanda-Burundi: UN Condemns Killing Of Presidents Of Rwanda And Burundi
- Date: 6th April 1994
- Summary: Violence rocked Rwanda after its president, and the president of Burundi, were killed in a rocket attack on their plane on April 6. The Rwandan jet was set ablaze as it approached Kigali airport. The men were returning from a peace summit in Tanzania. Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, 57, and Burundi's President Cyprien Ntaryamira, 38, died along with 2 Burundi ministers and 5 senior Rwandan officials. The UN announced the deaths of the two presidents and the Security Council stood for one minute in silent tribute. Rwanda's envoy to the United Nations, Jean Damascene Bizimana, described the attack as assassination. Troops, presidential guards and gendarmes went on the rampage in the Rwan- dan capital of Kigali on April 7 after the killing of the presidents. Both Rwanda and Burundi were ravaged by conflict between their Hutu majorities and Tutsi minorities. Ntaryamira was elected in January 1994 to succeed Burundi's first Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, who was killed by renegade troops from the Tutsi- dominated army in a failed coup in October 1993. Habyarimana, who was also a Hutu, took power in Rwanda in a coup in 1973.
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- Location: USA NEW YORK CITY UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL
- Reuters ID: LDL0011ZSD0KZ
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
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