President Paul Kagame has told local and foreign journalists that they should ask President Emmanuel Macron of France why he didn’t turn up for the 30th Commemoration event in the capital Kigali.
“Relations between Rwanda and France have been good in recent days,” Kagame said in response to a question from a French Journalist who wondered whether Macron’s skipping of Kwibuka30 in Kigali may be a signal of troubled relations between Kigali and Paris.
Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy attended the Kwibuka30 in Kigali and was seen all smiles with President Paul Kagame.
“Of course behind that there is a long history of problems relating to what happened in our country thirty years ago. My feeling is that we have made progress but there are people in the political structures of France who are still living in the past,” Kagame said in response to why President Emmanuel Macron may have cancelled his trip to Rwanda to attend the 30th commemoration of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi.
Kagame also highlighted the fact that Kigali and Paris are on good working terms, especially in Mozambique where France has what Kagame describes as “heavy” investments.
“The French have heavy investments in Mozambique and since we are contributing to stability in areas where their investments are established, we have good discussions and how we can continue to stabilise the area,” Kagame said.
Rwanda has since July 2021 deployed soldiers to deal with jihadist militants in northern Mozambique and now has 2,500 troops there.
“Rwandan soldiers are much appreciated by the Mozambican population,” asserted Le Monde writer and former diplomat Jean-Christophe Rufin, the author of a report commissioned by TotalEnergies on the socio-economic consequences of the Mozambique LNG gas project, in which the French hydrocarbon giant holds a 26.5% stake. “They are disciplined, efficient in their interventions, and their barracks are very well managed.”
