It suffered a genocide that wiped out 1.2 million people in one hundred days and decimated the country's economy.
But 15 years on, its international supporters are calling Rwanda's economic recovery a miracle.
Now the government has chosen to drop French as the language taught in schools and used in business - in favour of English. All to attract even more companies to do busines there.
Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reports from the capital, Kigali.