French President Emmanuel Macron has made a major admission about France’s involvement in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, saying France and its allies “could have stopped” the genocide but they “lacked the will to do so.”
In a video to be posted on social media on Sunday, Macron admits that France failed to act decisively during one of the darkest periods in Rwanda’s history. He argues that France, along with its Western and African allies, had the opportunity to intervene and prevent the genocide, but ultimately failed to do so due to a lack of resolve.
Macron’s statement comes as Rwanda marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide. The recognition marks a significant shift in France’s position on its role in the genocide. Macron’s confession follows his visit to Rwanda in 2021, during which he acknowledged France’s “responsibility” for the genocide.
In 1994, a plane carrying the country’s president Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi’s leader Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down by unknown assailants in Rwanda. Hutu extremists used their deaths as a pretext to seize power in Rwanda and to launch a genocide of the Tutsi ethnic group and moderate Hutu politicians. The majority of the 800,000 dead were of this ethnic group.
