Thirty years after genocide, Rwanda’s relations with France are slowly mending

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France’s relationship with Rwanda is gradually improving as French authorities acknowledge the country’s responsibility in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which began 30 years ago this week. An estimated 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, died in the violence perpetrated by Hutus – a faction that France had a history of supporting.

After years of controversy over France’s role in the bloodshed, a commission of historians appointed by Macron in 2021 returned a damning indictment.

Vincent Duclert, who led the commission, said France had been “blind” to preparations for the genocide and bore “serious and overwhelming” responsibility – findings the French government accepted.

The commission found no proof that France was directly complicit in the killings.

However in a video message, French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed France and its Western allies “could have stopped” the massacre but lacked the political will to do so.

“When the phase of total extermination against the Tutsis began, the international community had the means to know and act,” he said in the message, to be published Sunday.

‘Partial apologies’

But according to Phil Clark, professor of international politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, both France’s responsibility and the failure of the United Nations to stop the genocide need further reckoning.