This came just four days after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi) and its military wing, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), had launched their armed struggle to liberate the country.
It was a particularly tense moment for President Juvénal Habyarimana. When the RPF attacked the Kagitumba border, Habyarimana was in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly. He rushed back to Kigali in alarm.
At that time, the government army, the ex-FAR, was small and inexperienced, numbering fewer than 5,000 soldiers who had never faced real combat. Their military equipment was limited and outdated.
Alarmed by the Kagitumba attack, Habyarimana began seeking help from allies, notably Zaire’s president Mobutu Sese Seko and France’s president François Mitterrand. France responded quickly, agreeing to send elite troops known for handling high-risk combat.
A special French unit of 300 commandos was selected. According to John Burton Kegel’s book The Liberation Struggle: War and Militarism in African History, the decision to deploy these troops was made on October 3. Two military aircraft were prepared to transport them from France to Kigali.
This intervention was named Operation Noroît, France’s mission to protect Habyarimana’s regime.
The unit was already famous within the French army, having previously carried out the “Kolwezi Mission” in Congo in 1978.
The first plane departed on the night of October 4, 1990, at 3 a.m., followed by a second at 5:45 a.m. Both first headed to Bangui in the Central African Republic, where France had a military base.
According to Kegel, the C-160 Transall aircraft took off from Bangui in the afternoon of October 4, heading to Kigali.
Even these elite soldiers were nervous. They feared Kigali International Airport might be unsafe and came prepared with parachutes in case they had to jump under fire. But French trainers already in Rwanda reassured them that Kanombe Airport was secure despite the gunfire heard overnight.
When the first plane approached Rwandan airspace, French officers on the ground confirmed the situation was calm, so parachutes were not needed. The commandos landed in Kigali around 6:45 p.m. and were told that RPA forces were about 170 kilometres away, much farther than rumours suggested.
The Habyarimana government had deliberately fired heavy gunfire in the capital to create panic, spread false claims of an RPA attack on Kigali, and justify mass arrests of Tutsi civilians, accusing them of collaborating with the rebels. Historians like Bernard Lugan note that FAR soldiers themselves panicked that night, shooting aimlessly and causing chaos.
There was also an attempt to overthrow Habyarimana.
Former Belgian ambassador to Rwanda, Johan Swinnen, later revealed that some FAR soldiers tried to stage a coup that night. According to Swinnen, the U.S. Embassy had been warned beforehand that something unusual might happen.
{{French forces stayed on in Rwanda}}
The French troops did more than protect Habyarimana. They began training the FAR, providing weapons and logistics, even transporting soldiers by helicopter. They helped establish military intelligence and security systems that strengthened Habyarimana’s hold on power, while political tensions and anti-Tutsi persecution deepened.
Thanks to French support, FAR troops grew dramatically, from about 5,000 soldiers in October 1990 to roughly 20,000 by the end of that year.
After the 1993 Arusha Peace Accords, France withdrew many of its forces but left behind military advisers and Habyarimana’s personal guard.
When the genocide began in April 1994 following Habyarimana’s death, France launched Operation Turquoise in June. This mission is often criticised for protecting members of the interim government and military leaders who organised the killings, allowing them to flee to Zaire (now DR Congo) and prepare to fight back.
The presence of French troops in Rwanda from 1990 to 1994, including their role in training and equipping militias such as the Interahamwe, remains a highly debated and painful part of Rwanda’s modern history.
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