Surviving the genocide: the impact of the Rwandan genocide on child mortality

The aim of this paper is to investigate the consequences of the Rwandan genocide on infant and child mortality. Between April and July 1994 Rwanda experienced a tremendous wave of inter-ethnic violence that caused at least 500.000 deaths. We use the Rwanda DHS 2000 survey to test if exposure to the genocide has induced an increase in infant and child mortality. Considering both direct exposure to the conflict and exposure while in utero, we estimate several specifications of discrete-time survival models with piecewise constant baseline hazards. Our results show that the conflict increases significantly infant mortality, and that, several years after the end of the war, this effect is still there to undermine the survival of children who were exposed to it.