National Revolutionary Movement for Development

National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (French: Mouvement républicain national pour la démocratie et le développement, MRND) was the ruling political party of Rwanda from 1975 to 1994 under President Juvénal Habyarimana. It was dominated by Hutus, particularly from President Habyarimana's home region of Northern Rwanda. The party was founded in 1975 as the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (Mouvement Révolutionaire National pour le Développement). From 1975 until 1991, the MRND was the only legal political party in the country, and all citizens were required to be members. It was modeled loosely on the Communist parties in China and North Korea, with institutional structures that paralleled the government structures at each level, down to the sector and cell. The party's name was changed after the legalization of opposition political parties in 1991.

After the RPF invasion in 1990, members of the MRND created the magazine Kangura. The youth wing of the party, the Interahamwe, was later developed into a militia group that played a key role in the 1994 genocide. After Habyarimana's death in April 1994, hardline elements of the party were among the chief architects of the Rwandan Genocide. After Rwanda was conquered by the rival Tutsi-dominated Rwandese Patriotic Front led by Paul Kagame, the MRND was driven from power and outlawed.

The Coalition for the Defence of the Republic, which played a large role in the Rwandan genocide, was a hard-line faction of the MRND that became a separate party.

See also