Kigeli V Ndahindurwa: Last king of Rwanda dies aged 80

The last king of Rwanda has died in the US aged 80 years old.

Born Jean-Baptiste Ndahindurwa, King Kigeli V came to power in 1959 but was only king of Rwanda until 1961, when the monarchy was abolished and he was forced into exile.

He eventually settled in the US where he set up a charity helping Rwandan refugees and orphans.

King Kigeli was the last in a line of monarchs from the minority Tutsi ethnic group, which had dominated Rwandan for many years, but the Belgian former colonial power favoured the majority Hutus and backed a coup.

Rwanda was proclaimed a republic in 1961, and a Hutu, Dominique Mbonyumutwa, was made president.

Tens of thousands of Tutsis were forced into exile including King Kigeli, who lived the rest of his life outside Rwanda.

For three decades the country endured ethnic violence, culminating in the 1994 mass slaughter, in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.

King Kigeli held onto the hope that he could return to the throne in Rwanda.