Kagame, Paul

(born October 1957, Rwanda) President of Rwanda from 2000. An ethnic Tutsi, Kagame grew up in exile in Uganda, where in 1986 he helped overthrow Milton Obote in favour of Yoweri Museveni. In 1990 he helped direct an unsuccessful coup in Rwanda, and following the 1994 genocide that left almost one million Rwandans dead (most of them Tutsi), he assumed control of the joint Tutsi-Hutu opposition forces that soon controlled all of Rwanda. In July 1994 he was named vice president and minister of defense under Hutu president Pasteur Bizimungu. After Bizimungu resigned in 2000, Kagame was named president. In 1997 he was instrumental in the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko in neighbouring Zaire (Congo) and the installation of Laurent Kabila as president.

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