A monument in honour of the victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi is scheduled to be erected in the capital, Paris, the French presidency said on Friday.
The French presidency added that the monument will be across the water from another memorial to the victims of the mass killings of Armenians during World War I, which Yerevan and several Western states see as genocide.
The announcement comes after President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 recognised that his country bore responsibility in the killing of more than a million Tutsis between April and July 1994.
The idea is “for the nation to pay its visible and permanent respects to the memory of the victims,” the presidency said, adding that a call for tenders would be launched at the end of May.
Marcel Kabanda, president of the Ibuka France genocide survivor association, welcomed the announcement as “very important”.
“It’s the sign that France… recognises its history,” he said.
“It’s a gesture to appease memories between France and Rwanda, and to appease the hearts of survivors of the genocide.”
