Dominique Mbonyumutwa, one of the few Hutu sub-chiefs in colonial Rwanda, was attacked by Tutsi activists, precipitating the Rwandan Revolution.

Dominique Mbonyumutwa was a Rwandan politician who served as the interim first President of Rwanda for a period of nine months in 1961, during a transitional phase between the overthrow of the Rwandan monarchy in the Rwandan Revolution and the country's independence. Following an election in October of that year, he was succeeded by Grégoire Kayibanda who became the first elected president of the country following independence.

The Hutu, also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great Lakes Twa.

Ruanda-Urundi, later Rwanda-Burundi, was a geopolitical entity, once part of German East Africa, that was occupied by troops from the Belgian Congo during the East African campaign in World War I and was administered by Belgium under military occupation from 1916 to 1922. It was subsequently awarded to Belgium as a Class-B Mandate under the League of Nations in 1922 and became a Trust Territory of the United Nations in the aftermath of World War II and the dissolution of the League. In 1962 Ruanda-Urundi became the two independent states of Rwanda and Burundi.

The Tutsi, also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group mainly established in Rwanda. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi.