Akagera national park is one of the four major national parks of Rwanda and the largest national park there’s in the country. It is found in the Eastern part of Rwanda shared by Tanzania. It is covered by savanna, montane, and swamp vegetation, River Akagera- a meandering course of River Nile. This national park was named after River Akagera. Initially it covered a very wide area of about 2,500 km² which was all reduced to approximately 1200 km² with an altitude of 1250m-1825 above sea level, due to the outbreak of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide and in the course of settling the refugees, setting up of farms and industries for the survivors.
Akagera national park has seen its re-establishment from the years of 1997 -2009 when Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and African Parks Network formed the Akagera Management Company for the management of Akagera National Park in which a 120 km western boundary fence and the reintroduction of lion and black rhino project was run. Hence, the revival of the kings of the jungles in Akagera national park, after several years, seven lions were reintroduced in Rwanda.
Akagera national park is a well-known place for several tourist attractions and activities which include great wildlife safaris and game drives on Buffalos, elephant, zebra, giraffe, chimpanzees, spotted hyena, leopard, lion, hippos, crocodiles, and many more, brding- as it is a home to over 500 bird species such as the water birds, 44 species of raptor, Balaeniceps rex and many Palearctic migrants, amongst which Falco naumanni, Gallinago mediaandGlareola nordmanni have been recorded. The Akagera also harbors the Zambezian biome species, including Lanius souzae, Myrmecocichla arnotti and Cisticola angusticauda.
This national park feature several tourist attractions like ; birding due to its diversity with bird species, wildlife safaris and game drives that reward visitors with wonderful views of several wild animals, spot fishing , Akagera river exploration and lake tours to Lake Ihema, Kivumba, Hago, Mihindi, and Rwanyakizinga among others.