KIGALI (AFP) – Rwandan President Paul Kagame kicks off the genocide-scarred country's presidential campaign Tuesday in a tense atmosphere following a string of attacks, assassinations and arrests.

Kagame, who has ruled the small central African nation since his movement ended the 1994 massacre by Hutu extremists, is widely expected to be re-elected, with the three main opposition groups effectively out of the running.
Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) holds a large rally at Kigali's national stadium on Tuesday night to launch a campaign expected to cost two million dollars.
Campaign coordinator Christophe Bazivamo said the funding was supplied by “voluntary contributions”.
The more modest Social Democratic Party of Deputy Speaker Jean-Damascene Ntawukuriryayo is planning to take out a bank loan.
Two other presidential challengers -- the Liberal Party's Prosper Higiro and the Party of Progress and Concord's Alvera Mukabaramba -- will also be campaigning on low budgets.
Those three parties supported Kagame during the 2003 presidential election and are described by the opposition as the RPF's “political satellites”.