Watch: Rwanda marks 30th anniversary of genocide

Watch as Rwanda marked the 30th anniversary of the genocide that claimed almost a million lives during the country’s civil war in the early 1990s.

Paul Kagame addressed delegates after lighting the Flame of Remembrance in Kigali.

Sunday’s (7 April) events paid tribute to the approximately 800,000 people who were killed in 100 days in 1994 by armed Hutu extremists who targeted the minority Tutsi community and political opponents.

Tens of thousands of Tutsi people fled Rwanda after Hutus overthrew the monarchy in 1959.

The Tutsi-formed Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwanda in 1990. Fighting ensued until a peace deal was reached three years later.

On 6 April 1994, then-president Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundi counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed when their plane was shot down.

The deaths prompted weeks of systematic massacres and an estimated 150,000 to 250,000 women were also raped, according to the United Nations outreach programme.

Killings continued until 4 July 1994 when the RPF took military control of Rwanda.