In April 1995, the UN Officials started to close the IDP camps, which initiative was supported by the government. The first operation was launched on 18 April 1995 when the army surrounded Kibeho camp. The government maintained the position that the internal security had improved significantly and therefore the IDPs should return to their communities. To force the IDPs out of the camp, the government adopted a strategy of not providing food to IDPs, it also deployed the army in the camps.¹ As such, the RPF sought to close the camps and eventually turned to force. In April 1995, RPF troops opened fire on IDPs at Kibeho, killing several thousand people.

The genocidal violence of 1994 produced massive waves of displacement. By the end of the genocide, an estimated 2 million people had fled to neighboring countries and an estimated 3 million were internally displaced.[fn]”UN Secretary General’s Report to the Security Council,” United Nations (S/1994/924), August 3, 1994.[/efn_note] In late October there were an estimated 1.2 million Rwandan refugees in Zaire, 270,000 in Burundi, and over 500,000 in Tanzania.[fn]”World Report-Rwanda,” Human Rights Watch, 1995, accessed September 22, 2011, http://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/WR95/AFRICA-08.htm#P397_139563.[/efn_note] At the end of 1994, there were 2-3 million people displaced. The largest portion sought refuge in the French-controlled Zone Tourquoise in south-west Rwanda. Most of these were Hutu who fled the RPF. When the French pulled out, the IDPs remained in large camps. The transitional government in its eight point program reiterated that one of its main goals was the repatriation and resettlement of refugees and displaced persons.[fn]”UN Secretary General’s Report to the Security Council,” United Nations (S/1995/107), February 6, 1995.[/efn_note]

Provisions related to the resettlement of IDPs in the Arusha Accord were not implemented in 1993.

Resettlement continued with 38, 643 returnees in 2002.²

Resettlement continued with 21,565 returnees in 2001.¹

Resettlement continued with 26,262 returnees in 2000.¹

The UNHCR reported the return of some 38,420 refugees to Rwanda in 1999.¹

The repatriation of refugees slowed in 1998 with some 10,939 refugees returning to Rwanda.¹

By the end of the year, 220,454 refugees returned to Rwanda¹ It was reported that Zairian rebels had blocked aid workers from entering refugee camps, raising fears that 100,000 Rwandan refugees might flee the camps into the forests.³ Aid workers reported on 23 April 1997 that approximately 55,000 refugees had fled the camps after battles between Zairian rebels and renegade Rwandan soldiers.⁴ In December 1997, Hutu rebels attacked a camp for Tutsi refugees in northwestern Rwanda killing up to 200 refugees.⁵

It was reported that roughly half of a million people returned to Rwanda during the week of 18 November 1996 after the RPF and the ADFL attacked refugee camps in eastern Congo.⁶ In 1996, according to the UNHCR statistical record, 1,410,782 refugees returned to Rwanda.⁷ Most Rwandan refugees in various camps in Tanzania had returned by the end of the year.⁸ The returnees were directed by Gen. Kagame to settle in unoccupied regions in Rwanda.⁹