Arusha Accords

The Arusha Accords (also Arusha Peace Agreement, or Arusha negotiations) were a set of five accords (or protocols) signed in Arusha, Tanzania on August 4, 1993, by the government of Rwanda and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), under mediation, to end a three-year Rwandan Civil War. Organized by the United States, France and the Organization of African Unity, the talks began on July 12, 1992, and lasted until June 24, 1993, with a final week-long meeting in Rwanda, July 19 to July 25, 1993.

The people of Rwanda included primarily peasant Hutus and the aristocratic Tutsis, as well as the marginalized pygmoid Twa. The Arusha Accords established a Broad-Based Transitional Government (BBTG), including the insurgent Rwandese Patriotic Front (primarily Tutsi) and the five political parties that had composed a temporary government since April 1992 in anticipation of general elections. The Accords included other points considered necessary for lasting peace: the rule of law, repatriation of refugees both from fighting and from power sharing agreements, and the merging of government and rebel armies.