The Rwanda Refugee Crisis Rwanda, located in central Africa, suffers from one of the world's most recent refugee crises. The word refugees could be defined in the traditional context, " people who decide to seek asylum out of fear of political, racial, or religious persecution, or who leave their homes because of war or civil strife " 1. Between the seventies to eighties this definition began to change. The world was beginning to see a great many people seeking refuge due to " a variety of severe economic, social and military ills - poverty, famine and conflicts over resources " 2. Theref