RUSUMO WATER FALLS IN KAGERA TANZANIA

WATER FALL IN TANZANIA KAGERA

 The border crossing at Rusumo Falls. Tanzania is on the left, Rwanda on the right. Rusumo Falls is a waterfall located on the Kagera river on the border between Rwanda and Tanzania, part of the most distant headwaters of the river Nile. Although the falls themselves are not of a significant height in comparison to other waterfalls, they have played an important part in the history of Rwanda because they form the only bridging point on the river in that area. Significant Events The falls were the scene of the first arrival of Europeans in Rwanda in 1894, when the German count Gustav Adolf von Götzen came across from Tanzania (Rwanda had been considered part of German East Africa since 1885 but no German had yet entered the country). He continued from there to the palace of the Mwami at Nyanza, and onward to the shores of Lake Kivu.[1] A close up of the falls. The Belgians also entered Rwanda via the falls, when they took over the country during World War I in 1916. The bridge at Rusumo was the only feasible crossing of the river at the time, and the Germans had entrenched themselves on the Rwandan side. By taking up positions in the surrounding hills, the Belgians were able to remove these guards using mounted artillery opening up the route by which they invaded the rest of the country.[1] The falls gained international fame during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, as thousands of dead bodies flowed underneath the Rusomo Bridge while a simultaneous stream of refugees crossed over it, fleeing into Tanzania to escape the slaughtering. This was one of the first mass outflows of the Great Lakes refugee crisis. The Kagera drains water from all areas of Rwanda except the far west, and consequently carried all the corpses which had been discarded into rivers nationwide. This led to a state of emergency being declared in areas around the shore of Lake Victoria in Uganda, where these bodies eventually washed up. References 1. ^ a b Philip Briggs & Janice Booth (2001) Rwanda: The Bradt Travel Guide p197. Bradt Travel Guides Ltd. and The Globe Pequot Press Inc. ISBN 1-84162-034-3 Coordinates: 2°22′31″S 30°47′33″E Categories: • Kagera River • Eastern Province, Rwanda • Landforms of Rwanda • Waterfalls of Tanzania • International waterfalls • Rwanda–Tanzania border Navigation menu • Create account • Log in • Article • Talk • Read • Edit • View history • Main page • Contents • Featured content • Current events • Random article • Donate to Wikipedia Interaction • Help • About Wikipedia • Community portal • Recent changes • Contact Wikipedia Toolbox Print/export Languages • Deutsch • Eesti • Español • Esperanto • Français • 日本語 • 中文 • Edit links • This page was last modified on 16 March 2013 at 02:49. • Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.