In the genocide that followed the Hutu president, Juvénal Habyarimana's, assassination in April 1994, almost 1million of Rwanda's 7.6 million inhabitants were killed. Rwanda is in a transitional phase; although humanitarian needs have decreased since 1994, development needs have increased. Willy and Emmanuel and their families are still vulnerable and live below the poverty line, along with 65% of the Rwandese population. .
Subsequent major upheavals in 1998 and 1999 resulted in further population movements. The government's national habitat policy' of "villagising- camps for the internally displaced after the genocide has produced pseudo-towns (whose inhabitants are largely without proper shelter, land allocations or adequate basic services), rather than the traditional scattered homesteads. The government justified this measure by pointing out that traditional scattered settlements left people exposed to the action of rebel groups and hindered their access to services such as public education, health, electricity and water. By August 2000, 48% of the Ruhengeri population and 19% of the Gisenyi population had been resettled into new villages. By mid-2000 there were an estimated 600 000 internally displaced people living in crowded conditions in north-western Rwanda. Because it is believed that many people returning to their homes have been coerced (deprived access to their land without compensation), opinions vary whether people resettled in villages should be viewed as internally displaced'. The UN no longer counts people like Emmanuel and his family as IDPs, but whether they are classified as such or not, they are among many whose reintegration needs have not been sufficiently addressed. Added to this burden is the fact that Rwanda is hosting 30 000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other neighbouring countries, while ongoing conflicts in the DRC and Burundi raise fears that regional instability could spread to Rwanda.