France's top diplomate Stéphane Séjourné has said that Paris would invest €400 million in Rwanda's environment, health and education sectors over the next five years as it aims to renew ties with Kigali.

Kigali

France plans to deepen its relationship with Rwanda through a significant financial commitment. Stéphane Séjourné, a leading French diplomat, announced that France would be investing €400 million in Rwanda. The investment is set to span over the next five years, focusing on crucial sectors such as the environment, health, and education. This move signifies a strategic effort to renew and strengthen ties between Paris and Kigali.



France to invest €400 million in Rwanda

A few days ago, French President Emmanuel Macron published a statement in which he said that France and its allies could have stopped the 1994 genocide, but lacked the will to do so. Now, that was huge in Rwanda. People that I've spoken to here have said that they appreciate these steps taken by President Emmanuel Macron to improve relations with Rwanda, but they are hoping for an apology. Now, that statement that he made a few days ago was a snippet of a video that's going to be published later today, and as I say, Rwandans are hoping that in that video there's going to be an apology. But that's not very likely. It's more likely that the French president is going to take a similar stance to the one he's taken over the last few years, and that's to acknowledge France's mistakes during that period, but to not apologise, because that could open the door for demand for reparations, not just in Rwanda, but elsewhere as well. Despite not apologising, the French president has made very important steps in improving relations with Rwanda that was sour for 25 years after the genocide. In 2021, he put together a group of historians who later published a 900-page report, Le Rapport du Clerc. In that report, the historians found that France had played a significant role in enabling the genocide to happen, notably by supporting the then Hutu extremist government. Now, as you said, the French president will not be in Kigali for these commemorations. He instead sent the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Sijourny, who last night gave a press conference in which he announced that France was going to be investing 400 million euros to Rwanda over the next five years. That money is going to be spent to support Rwanda's environment, health and education sectors.

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