Rwanda Districts

The district (akarere) is the second tier of Rwanda, between the five provinces and the sectors, and the unit the government runs from schools to roads. There are 30 of them, from the three small ones that make up Kigali to the wide savannah districts of the east.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: Province: the five of the country
In the game: 30 districts

Start

What you are looking at

The 30 districts of Rwanda, as the 2006 reform drew them, the same year the twelve old provinces became five. The count has held since then, which makes this one of the more stable maps in the series, and an older map that shows forty or more districts is from before the reform.

Several districts carry the name of the town that heads them, so Musanze, Huye, Rubavu and Rusizi are worth knowing as places as well. Huye is the town that older maps call Butare, and Musanze is the one they call Ruhengeri. Rubavu was Gisenyi, on the shore of Lake Kivu, and Nyagatare, in the far north east, is among the biggest.

The districts are uneven. In Kigali, Nyarugenge, Kicukiro and Gasabo are the three, and Nyarugenge and Kicukiro are small enough to be given a tap area on the map. The east is the opposite: Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Kayonza and Bugesera are wide, flat and sparsely settled by Rwandan standards.

The groups are the provinces, so the game lets you drill them one at a time. Each province answers under the same name in Rwanda Provinces.

How to place one

Pick one province and learn it. Kigali has only three and is the quickest to finish; the Southern province has eight, the most of any.
Start in the north. Musanze, Burera and Nyabihu are the districts at the foot of the volcanoes, and nothing else on the map is as high.
Follow the lake. Rubavu, Rutsiro, Karongi, Nyamasheke and Rusizi run down the shore of Lake Kivu on the Congolese border.
Read the east as steps. Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Kayonza, Kirehe and Ngoma run down the Tanzanian border, with Bugesera and Rwamagana inland toward Kigali.

Every district, by province

Kigali3 districts: Gasabo, Kicukiro, Nyarugenge
Northern5 districts: Burera, Gakenke, Gicumbi, Musanze, Rulindo
Southern8 districts: Gisagara, Huye, Kamonyi, Muhanga, Nyamagabe, Nyanza, Nyaruguru, Ruhango
Western7 districts: Karongi, Ngororero, Nyabihu, Nyamasheke, Rubavu, Rusizi, Rutsiro
Eastern7 districts: Bugesera, Gatsibo, Kayonza, Kirehe, Ngoma, Nyagatare, Rwamagana

Worked examples

Nyagatare

The biggest of them

Nyagatare is the largest district, in the far north east on the borders with Uganda and Tanzania. It is cattle country, and holds the southern part of Akagera National Park.

Nyarugenge

The small one in the capital

Nyarugenge is the smallest of the three Kigali districts, and holds the city centre. It is small enough to need a tap area on the map.

Huye

The name that changed

Huye, in the Southern province, is the home of the national university and the national museum. Many maps still call the district and its town Butare, so it is worth knowing both forms.