Rwanda is a country of much ethnic division, political tension and extreme violence. In 1959, just three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group in Rwanda, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries, simply because of their ethnic identity. The children of these Tutsi exiles formed a rebel group, and in 1990 civil war ensued. This culminated in a state-orchestrated genocide in 1994, in which Hutus killed up to a million of their fellow Rwandans, including about ¾ of the Tutsi population, over the course of only 100 days. The genocide finally ended when the Tutsis defeated the Hutus' militias, and many Hutus fled. Most refugees have returned, but the country is still reeling from such a massive ethnic divide. The genocide decimated Rwanda’s fragile economic base, severely impoverishing the population – today, around 45% of Rwanda’s 13 million live in poverty, and 46% of all Rwandans are under the age of 18.