The statement that best explains why the Hutu-led government in Rwanda tried to kill the Tutsi population during their civil war is:
The Tutsi-led rebel group was trying to overthrow the government.
This reflects the context of the Rwandan Civil War, where tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups escalated, especially with the rise of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Tutsi-led rebel group aiming to assert their position and power in the country. The government's response included extreme violence against the Tutsi population as part of an attempt to maintain power and control over the situation.