GenocideThe genocide was lead by Presidential Guard. In rural areas, the local government was in most cases the chain of command for the execution of the genocide.On April 9, UN observers witnessed the massacre of children . The same day, 1,000 heavily armed and trained European troops arrived to escort European civilian personnel out of the country.
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Rape was used as a tool by the Interahamwe. The use of propaganda played an important role in both the genocide and the gender specific violence. The Hutu propaganda depicted Tutsi women as "a sexually seductive ‘fifth column’ in league with the Hutus’ enemies". The exceptional brutality of the sexual violence, as well as the complicity of Hutu women in the attacks, suggests that the use of propaganda had been effective in the exploitation of gendered needs which had mobilized both females and males to participate.
Given the chaotic situation, there is no consensus on the number of people killed during the genocide. Unlike the genocides carried out by Nazi Germany and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, authorities made no attempts to record deaths. The succeeding RPF government has stated that 1,071,000 were killed. The Rwandan government estimated the number of victims of the genocide to be 1,174,000 in 100 days (10,000 murdered every day, 400 every hour, 7 every minute). It is estimated that about 300,000 Tutsi survived the genocide. Thousands of widows, many of whom were subjected to rape, are now HIV-positive. There were about 400,000 orphans and nearly 85,000 of them were forced to become heads of families.