Rwanda is a poor African nation suffering bitterly from ethnic-based civil war. The amount of fertile land is limited, however, and deforestation and soil erosion continue to create problems.
Manufacturing focuses mainly on the processing of agricultural products.
Weak international prices since 1986 have caused the economy to contract and per capita GDP to decline. A structural adjustment program with the World Bank began in October 1990. Ethnic-based insurgency since 1990 has devastated wide areas, especially in the north, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. The economy suffers massively from failure to maintain the infrastructure, looting, neglect of important cash crops, and lack of health care facilities. GDP in 1994 may have dropped by as much as half.