Geography of Rwanda

Template:Short description Template:Infobox country geography Rwanda is located in East Africa, to the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at the co-ordinates Template:Coord.

At Template:Convert, Rwanda is the world's 149th-largest country.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is comparable in size to Haiti or the state of Massachusetts in the United States.<ref name="cia2012">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The entire country is at a high altitude: the lowest point is the Rusizi River at Template:Convert above sea level.<ref name="cia2012"/>

Rwanda is located in Central/Eastern Africa, and is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, and Burundi to the south.<ref name="cia2012"/> It lies a few degrees south of the equator and is landlocked.<ref name="state">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The capital, Kigali, is located near the centre of Rwanda.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Major geographic featuresEdit

File:KageraRuvubu.jpg

The Kagera and Ruvubu rivers, part of the upper Nile

File:Rwanda2021OSM.png

Enlargeable, detailed map of Rwanda

The watershed between the major Congo and Nile drainage basins runs from north to south through Rwanda, with around 80 percent of the country's area draining into the Nile and 20 percent into the Congo via the Rusizi River.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The country's longest river is the Nyabarongo, which rises in the south-west, flows north, east, and southeast before merging with the Akanyaru to form the Kagera; the Kagera then flows due north along the eastern border with Tanzania. The Nyabarongo-Kagera eventually drains into Lake Victoria, and its source in Nyungwe Forest is a contender for the as-yet undetermined overall source of the Nile.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rwanda has many lakes, the largest being Lake Kivu. This lake occupies the floor of the Albertine Rift along most of the length of Rwanda's western border, and with a maximum depth of Template:Convert,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> it is one of the twenty deepest lakes in the world.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Other sizeable lakes include Burera, Ruhondo, Muhazi, Rweru, and Ihema, the last being the largest of a string of lakes in the eastern plains of Akagera National Park.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Mountains dominate central and western Rwanda. These mountains are part of the Albertine Rift Mountains that flank the Albertine branch of the East African Rift. This branch runs from north to south along Rwanda's western border.<ref name="wwf">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The highest peaks are found in the Virunga volcano chain in the northwest; this includes Mount Karisimbi, Rwanda's highest point, at Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:A man walks through heavy rain under an umbrella in Kigali, Rwanda. Emmanuel Kwizera.jpg

Rain in Kigali (January 2020)

This western section of Rwanda, which lies within the Albertine Rift montane forests ecoregion,<ref name="wwf"/> has an elevation of Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The centre of the country is predominantly rolling hills, while the eastern border region consists of savanna, plains and swamps.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Rwanda has a temperate tropical highland climate, with lower temperatures than are typical for equatorial countries due to its high elevation.<ref name="state"/> Kigali, in the centre of the country, has a typical daily temperature range between Template:Convert, with little variation through the year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> There are some temperature variations across the country; the mountainous west and north are generally cooler than the lower-lying east.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

There are two rainy seasons in the year. The first runs from February to June and the second from September to December. These are separated by two dry seasons: the major one from June to September, during which there is often no rain at all, and a shorter and less severe one from December to February.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Rainfall varies geographically, with the west and northwest of the country receiving more precipitation annually than the east and southeast.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Political geographyEdit

Rwanda borders Burundi for 290 km, the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 217 km, Tanzania for 217 km, and Uganda for 169 km. projections in East Africa shows that temperatures are predicted to rise and be between 1.8 and 4.3° higher than the 1980–99 mean by 2100.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Physical geographyEdit

Rwanda has an area of 26 thousand square kilometers, of which 3 percent is water.

File:Rwanda Topography.png

Topography of Rwanda

ClimateEdit

Template:See also Rwanda has a tropical savanna climate and a subtropical highland climate (Köppen climate classification Aw and Cwb/Cfb), with a wet season and a dry season.

Template:Weather box

Natural resourcesEdit

Rwanda possesses the following natural resources:

gold
cassiterite (tin ore)
wolframite (tungsten ore)
columbite-tantalite (tantalum and niobium ore)
methane
hydro-electric power
coffee
tea
arable land
green beans

The use of land in Rwanda is largely for arable land, and other purposes. 40 km² of land in Rwanda is irrigated. The table below describes the land use in Rwanda, as of 2011.

Land use
Use	Percentage of Area
arable land	46.32
permanent crops	9.49
other	44.19

EnvironmentEdit

Natural hazards in Rwanda include periodic droughts and the volcanic activity of the Virunga Mountains, located in the northwest of the country, along the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Current issuesEdit

Current issues concerning the environment in Rwanda include: the result of uncontrolled deforestation for fuel, overgrazing, soil exhaustion.

International agreementsEdit

Rwanda is a party to the following international agreements:

Rwanda has signed, but not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Extreme pointsEdit

This is a list of the extreme points of Rwanda, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.

Northernmost point – unnamed location on the border with Uganda immediately north-west of the village of Kagitumba, Eastern province
Easternmost point – unnamed location on the border with Tanzania in the Kagera river, Eastern province
Southernmost point – unnamed location on the border with Burundi, Southern province
Westernmost point – unnamed location on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Ruzizi river immediately south of the DRC town of Bukavu, Western province