Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame is expected to meet with several former French army officers who served in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994.
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame set to meet former French army officers
Vincent Duclert (L), a French historian and Rwandan President Paul Kagame (R) pose for a photograph at the statehouse in Kigali, Rwanda
-
Copyright © africanews
SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP or licensors
The officers served when Kagame commanded a rebellion that was at war with the French-backed regime that is being accused of planning and committing the genocide against the Tutsis.
The meeting comes in hand at a time when the French historian Vincent Duclert released a report in March linking France to the genocide.
Persistent claims that France under then-President Francois Mitterrand did not do enough to stop the genocide have damaged the Franco-Rwandan relationship since the 1990s.
As a result, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered the 15-member commission in May 2019 to shed light on what happened in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994.
Although the report states that France bears overwhelming responsibilities for the genocide, it claims that there was no evidence Paris was complicit in the slaughter of around 800,000 people - mainly of the Tusi minority.
Kagame is in France attending two summits, one on the situation in Sudan, the other on the financing of African economies.