Statecraft & Independence
Peerless
Agathe Uwilingiyimana
1953 – 1994
Rwanda's only woman prime minister, killed at the start of the genocide
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the Rwanda Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Rwanda's first and only woman prime minister, assassinated on the first day of the genocide because she stood in its way.
Agathe Uwilingiyimana was a chemistry teacher from Butare who entered politics through the opposition Democratic Republican Movement as the one-party state gave way.
As Minister of Education she abolished the ethnic and regional quota system that had governed admission to Rwandan schools for a generation, replacing it with examination results — a decision that made her enemies and for which she was publicly attacked and, by some accounts, assaulted. She became prime minister in July 1993.
On the night of 6 April 1994 President Habyarimana's plane was shot down. As prime minister she was constitutionally next in authority, and she was preparing to broadcast an appeal for calm on Radio Rwanda. Soldiers of the Presidential Guard surrounded her house, hunted her down and killed her on the morning of 7 April, along with her husband. Her children were hidden by a UN volunteer and survived.
The ten Belgian peacekeepers assigned to protect her were disarmed, taken to a military camp and murdered the same day — the act that led Belgium to withdraw its contingent and the Security Council to cut the UN force in Rwanda to a token, leaving the country to what followed.
As Minister of Education she abolished the ethnic and regional quota system that had governed admission to Rwandan schools for a generation, replacing it with examination results — a decision that made her enemies and for which she was publicly attacked and, by some accounts, assaulted. She became prime minister in July 1993.
On the night of 6 April 1994 President Habyarimana's plane was shot down. As prime minister she was constitutionally next in authority, and she was preparing to broadcast an appeal for calm on Radio Rwanda. Soldiers of the Presidential Guard surrounded her house, hunted her down and killed her on the morning of 7 April, along with her husband. Her children were hidden by a UN volunteer and survived.
The ten Belgian peacekeepers assigned to protect her were disarmed, taken to a military camp and murdered the same day — the act that led Belgium to withdraw its contingent and the Security Council to cut the UN force in Rwanda to a token, leaving the country to what followed.
- Britannica — Agathe Uwilingiyimana
- Human Rights Watch — Leave None to Tell the Story: the first days of killing
- Wikipedia — Agathe Uwilingiyimana
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