French President Emmanuel Macron has conceded that France and its Western and African allies “could have stopped” the 1994 genocide in Rwanda but lacked the will to intervene, according to a statement from the presidency on Thursday.
In a forthcoming video message to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide, Macron will underscore the international community’s failure to act when the genocide against the Tutsis began. He will highlight that despite historical precedents like the Holocaust and mass killings in Ottoman Turkey, there was a lack of action to prevent the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people.
Macron will acknowledge that France, alongside its allies, had the means to intervene but did not possess the determination to do so. This admission comes amid ongoing efforts by Macron to address France’s role in the genocide, with the president refraining from attending commemorations in Kigali this Sunday.
Instead, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne will represent France at the event. Macron’s visit to Rwanda in 2021 marked a significant step in acknowledging France’s “responsibilities” in the genocide, although he stopped short of issuing a formal apology.
The Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, who led the Tutsi rebellion that ended the genocide, has long advocated for a stronger acknowledgment of France’s role. Macron’s statement aligns with the findings of a historical commission set up by his administration in 2021, which identified a “failure” on France’s part under former leader Francois Mitterrand but found no evidence of complicity in the killings.
