The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) is a big tent political party in Rwanda that was founded in 1987. The RPF was founded by Fred Rwigyema with the goal of overthrowing Juvenal Habyarimana's Hutu regime and protecting Tutsi rights from the oppressive Hutus. On 1 October 1990, the RPF invaded Rwanda from Uganda and fought a long war with the Hutu government, facing fierce resistance from the France and Belgium-supported government and the radical Interahamwe Hutu militia, which killed around 1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the Rwandan Genocide. The RPF became a political party after the end of the Rwandan Civil War, and it was the ruling party for the next two decades. By the 2010s, the party had evolved from a left-wing nationalist (specifically social democratic and democratic socialist) political party into a populist and nationalist big tent party.
