France President Macron Plans First Rwanda Visit in Renewed Ties

His visit will be the second by a French president since Rwanda’s 1994 genocide – after former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visited in 2010.

Speaking at the end of the Paris summit on financing Africa, Mr Macron said his visit would be of “remembrance, politics, economics…and the future”.

“We also have agreed with President Kagame to write a new page in relations and do development projects…” Mr Macron said.

In March, a French report concluded that France bore “serious and overwhelming” responsibilities linked to the Rwandan genocide, but cleared it of complicity.

President Paul Kagame on Monday told French broadcaster France 24 that the report was “a big step forward… maybe not [to] forget [the past] but forgive it, and be able to move forward”.

Relations between the two countries were frozen from 2006 to 2009, after French judges issued warrants to arrest against Mr Kagame’s close allies.

This was in relation to the shooting of a plane that was carrying Burundi and Rwanda presidents in April 1994 – the event that triggered the genocide.

Rwandan authorities have been accusing French authorities of a role in the 1994 genocide and harbouring the perpetrators.