Provinces of Rwanda

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Updates: 

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter I-8, published on 2007-04-17, shows ISO province codes for the new administrative structure of Rwanda. They are shown in the table below.

FIPS 10-4 Change Notice 11, dated 2006-07-11, has assigned new FIPS codes corresponding to the new division of Rwanda into provinces, as shown below.

Paraskevas Renesis has pointed out that as of 2006-01-01, the twelve provinces of Rwanda were abolished and replaced with five entities: Province de l'Est, Province de l'Ouest, Province du Nord, Province du Sud, and Ville de Kigali. These are subdivided into thirty districts, according to a map on the Minaloc  (Ministry of Local Government) website. Among the reasons given for the change were the reduction of ethnic divisions and the suppression of reminders of the 1994 genocide. Here are maps , a little inaccurate, showing the new divisions as compared with the old.

The European Union mission of election observers issued a report  with some data that don't quite mesh with mine.

Niko Pater informed me that the status of the prefectures changed to provinces (Kinyarwanda: intara) as of 2002-01-01. At the same time, the communes were replaced by a new set of divisions called districts and municipalities (akarere and umujyi, respectively). Rwanda's government Web site has a list  of them.

In "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", I wrote, "There is evidence that Kigali has split into two prefectures, Kigali-Ville (ISO code L) and Kigali-Rural (K), and that a new prefecture, Mutara (M) has been formed from part of Byumba, Kibungo, or both." There are a number of documents that confirm this. The spellings Mutara and Umutara are both used, with Umutara in the majority.

A map in a World Food Program profile shows that Kigali-Ville is completely surrounded by Kigali-Rural, and Umutara contains areas formerly in both Byumba and Kibungo provinces. Umutara was created on 1996-04-19, according to a report of the Swiss Federal Office for Refugees. It implies that Kigali-Ville was created earlier.

Country overview: 

Rwanda was part of German East Africa in 1900. In 1919, as Germany's colonies were being divided up, Ruanda-Urundi was mandated to Belgium. It consisted of the counties of Ruanda and Urundi. It came under the administration of the Belgian Congo on 1926-03-01. The two counties became résidences (residencies). In 1960, the Belgian Congo became independent; Ruanda-Urundi remained a colony until 1962-07-01. On that date, the two counties became the countries of Rwanda and Burundi.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Rwanda
2. Dutch: Rwanda, Republiek Rwanda (formal)
3. English: Republic of Rwanda (formal)
4. Finnish: Ruanda
5. French: Rwanda m
6. German: Ruanda n
7. Icelandic: Rúanda
8. Italian: Ruanda m
9. Kinyarwanda: Republika y'u Rwanda (formal)
10. Norwegian: Rwanda, Republikken Rwanda (formal)
11. Portuguese: Ruanda, Rwanda, República f do Ruanda m (formal)
12. Spanish: Ruanda, República Rwandesa (formal), República f de Rwanda (formal)
13. Swedish: Rwanda

Origin of name: 

from name of language, Kinyarwanda

Primary subdivisions: 

Rwanda is divided into five intara (provinces).

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Rwanda page.

The provinces are divided into thirty districts, which are subdivided into 418 secteurs administratifs (administrative sectors), which are further subdivided into 9,165 cellules (cells). The cells are probably unchanged from the pre-2006 partition. Before 2006, Rwanda was divided into 12 provinces, which were divided into akarere (districts) and umujyi (municipalities), which in turn were divided into imirenge (sectors), which were divided into utugari (cells), which, finally, were divided into akagari (probably villages). Before 2002, Rwanda was divided into prefectures, which were subdivided into communes. The constitution allowed the formation of sub-prefectures on a level between the prefecture and the commune, but this was probably not done.

A Ministry of Local Government  web page says, "The Republic of Rwanda is divided into intara (provinces), uturere (districts), imirenge (sectors) and utugari (cells). The akarere (district) is the basic political-administrative unit of the country." (Apparently uturere is the plural of akarere.)

Origins of names: 

Kigali: Kinyarwanda for big mountain

Change history: 

1. 1946: Under the colonial administration, Ruanda was divided into eight territoires (territories): Astrida, Biumba, Kibungu, Kigali, Kîsenyi, Nyanza, Ruhengeri, and Shangugu.
2. 1959: Gitarama prefecture formed.
3. ~1996: Kigali prefecture (former HASC code RW.KL) split into Kigali-Ville and Kigali-Rural.
4. 1996-04-19: Divisions of Rwanda reorganized. Umutara formed from parts of Byumba and Kibungo. Many prefecture boundaries were modified. The resulting set of prefectures is shown in this table.

1. 2001-02-15: Laws governing the functions of provinces  and of Kigali-Ville  (text in French) took effect.
2. 2002-01-01: Status of divisions changed from prefegitura (French: préfectures; prefectures) to intara (provinces).
3. 2006-01-01: Rwanda reorganized from twelve provinces into five.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Butare: Astrida (obsolete)
2. Cyangugu: Shangugu (obsolete)
3. Gisenyi: Kisenyi (obsolete)
4. Kigali-Rural: Kigali Ngali, Kigali Ngari (Kinyarwanda)
5. Umutara: Mutara (variant)