When the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) saw that every peaceful attempt to protect vulnerable Tutsi and secure the right of return had failed, its leaders resolved on a final, irreversible step: to launch an armed struggle for freedom and a new vision for the nation.
That struggle began on October 1, 1990, when troops of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), the military wing of the RPF, crossed the border from Uganda into Rwanda.
As the war began, President Juvénal Habyarimana, the then Rwandan head of state, moved quickly to seek external military help. He first turned to Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, current DRC, but most significantly to French President François Mitterrand, who responded immediately and sent a special detachment of elite French troops.
According to John Burton Kegel in his book 'The Liberation Struggle: War and Militarism in African History', on October 3, 1990 at about 5:00 p.m., France decided to dispatch 300 elite forces.
Two military aircrafts were prepared in France to fly the soldiers first to Bangui, Central African Republic, where France maintained a staging post, before heading for Kigali.
These same elite forces had previously become famous in French military history for the 1978 Kolwezi mission in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The first plane left France at 3:00 a.m. on October 4, followed by a second at 5:45 a.m heading for Bangui staging post.
By 3:00 p.m. on October 4, two C-160 Transall aircrafts took off from Bangui bound for Kigali.
How French troops arrived with fear and uncertainty
Though elite and well-trained, the French soldiers themselves were uneasy about what awaited them in Rwanda.
According to Kegel, the French soldiers were unsure whether Kigali airport would be clear for landing, that the troops had all donned their parachutes in case an airborne assault proved necessary.
By the time the aircraft approached Rwanda, the pilots had been able to establish communications with the control tower of Kigali airport and were assured by French military personnel who were already stationed in the country as advisers to the FAR, known as the Mission d'assistance militaire (MAM), that a parachute assault would not be necessary.
The aircraft landed safely at 6:45 p.m., and the troops disembarked.
How the arrival fed Habyarimana's narrative
The French soldiers were told they had been deployed because RPA units were only about 60 kilometers from Kigali. Yet, that evening, Habyarimana's government claimed Kigali itself had come under RPA attack â€" a claim Kegel and other historians say was false and part of a political tactic.
French historian Bernard Lugan explains that FAR troops in Kigali, gripped by panic, began firing wildly, thinking an assault was imminent. The chaotic shooting created the impression of a battle, which Habyarimana used to justify mass arrests of Tutsi in Kigali, accusing them of being rebel collaborators.
A hidden internal crisis and attempted coup
Another layer emerged that night. Belgian ambassador Johan Swinnen later recalled that amid the gunfire, some FAR soldiers attempted to overthrow Habyarimana himself.
According to Swinnen, there had long been discontent in segments of the army, and the initial hours of confusion during the RPA attack gave dissidents an opportunity to move against the president. The U.S. Embassy had even been warned of possible unrest inside FAR ranks.
The attempted coup failed, but the night of October 4, 1990, became a turning point: it showed how fragile the then Rwandan army's cohesion was.
The RPA, still consolidating after its surprise entry, faced not only the FAR counterattacks but now a foreign professional force backing the Rwandan government. Yet despite these pressures and the early setbacks after Maj Gen Fred Rwigyema's death, the RPA adapted and the liberation struggle continued.
IGIHE
