Macron was invited to a ceremony in the Rwandan capital Kigali commemorating the anniversary of the genocide but will not attend. France will instead be represented by Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Séjourné and Rwandan-born genocide survivor Hervé Berville, the secretary of state for the sea.
The genocide has long been a source of tension between France and Rwanda. A report commissioned by the Rwandan government and published in 2021 found France played a “significant” role in “enabling” the bloodshed with its support of Rwanda’s regime.
A month after the report’s findings, Macron visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial honoring victims and gave a speech in which he acknowledged France’s “responsibilities” but stopped short of an official apology, insisting his country “was not an accomplice” to the violence.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who invited Macron to Sunday’s ceremony, appeared unperturbed by his French counterpart’s planned absence, telling a French-language pan-African publication last month that Paris can “send whoever they want.”
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