01 November, 1996
Thousands of refugees camp by the roadside on their way back to Rwanda. A new chapter was added to the tale of the hatred and violence between central Africa's Hutu and Tutsi population, which led to the genocide of some 800,000 Tutsi and a mass exodus to Zaire in 1994. Cross-border raids and fighting between Zairean rebels and government soldiers dispersed hundreds of thousands of refugees, turning Mugunga in eastern Zaire into the world's largest refugee camp. As the situation got desperate the West made plans to send in troops, but at that point a Tutsi-led offensive of Zairean rebels broke the Hutu militias' control of the camps.
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