Rwanda

Rwanda sees '09 tea earnings up 29 pct to $54 mln

Rwanda expects its 2009 earnings from tea to rise 29 percent to $54 million compared with the previous year, due to higher yields per hectare,...

Rwandan growth could reach 10%

Rwanda's booming manufacturing and farming sectors could push growth in the country to 10% this year, according to the Rwandan central bank governor.

Regreening Rwanda’s thousand hills

The balance of Rwanda’s wetlands is being restored, with a sub-regional and global impact It is an uphill task, but in the highlands and the...

Rwanda: First training course for military legal advisers in international humanitarian law

From 7 to 11 July 2008, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Rwandan Defence Forces (RDF) are running a training course in...

RWANDA: Military to lead the way in male circumcision

The soldiers in the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) will be the first men to benefit from a government policy to use male circumcision as a tool in the...

RWANDA: Reconciliation still a major challenge

Brigitte Mukandoli was a schoolgirl when a group of militias manning a roadblock near her village of Bishenyi, close to the Rwandan capital, Kigali,...

National name: Repubulika y'u Rwanda

Geography

Capital: Kigali
Major Towns: Kigali, Butare, Gitarama, Kibuye, Cyangugu, Kibungo
Location (geographical coordinates/latitude and longitude): Kigali: 1°57'S, 30°4'E
Time Zone: CAT (UTC+2)
Size (Land and Sea): 26,798 km²; Water: 5.3%
Borders with Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania
Elevation extremes: Lowest point: Rusizi River 950 m, highest point: Volcan Karisimbi 4,519 m

Politics

Head of State: President: Paul Kagame, Prime Minister: Bernard Makuza
Form of Government: Republic
Independancy (from Belgium): July 1, 1962
Currency: Rwandan Franc

Industry

Main industries: Agriculture, Primary exports are coffee and tea; minerals (mainly Coltan, used in manufacture of electronic and communication devices such as mobile phones) and flowers. Tourism also is a growing sector
Other industries: cement, small-scale beverages, soap, furniture, shoes, plastic goods, textiles, cigarettes.
Natural resources: gold, cassiterite (tin ore), wolframite (tungsten ore), methane, hydropower, arable land
Agriculture: coffee, tea, pyrethrum (insecticide made from chrysanthemums), bananas, beans, sorghum, potatoes; livestock

Population and People

Population: 9,907,509 (2007 est.); 7.6 million (July 2005 est.), 8,128,553 (2002):
Population density per sq mi: 1,029 (Rwanda supports the densest human populations in continental Africa)
Growth rate: 2.8% (2007 est.)
Birth rate: 40.2 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Total fertility rate: 5.37 children born/woman (2007 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 85.3/1000
Religion: .5% Roman Catholic, 26% Protestant, 11.1% Adventist, and 4.6% Muslim, original beliefs 0.1%, none 1.7% (2001).
Languages: Kinyarwanda, French, English, Kiswahili (Swahili)
Ethnic groups / Tribes: 84% Hutu, 15% Tutsi, and 1% Twa, with smaller minorities of South Asians, Arabs, French, British, and Belgians
Age structure: 0-14 years: 41.9% (male 2,082,474/female 2,065,251); 15-64 years: 55.7% (male 2,748,189/female 2,765,767); 65 years and over: 2.5% (male 98,796/female 147,032) (2007 est.)
Life expectancy: 49.0
Literacy: 60%

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