In the Spotlight: Rwanda, the Paris Court of Appeal dismisses the appeal of the families of the victims of the April 6, 1994 attack

Audio 4:10

By: Norbert Navarro

Publicity

On the front page of the African press, Rwanda, with the Court of Appeal in Paris which rejects the appeal brought by the families of the victims of the attack of April 6, 1994 against the plane of President Juvénal Habyarimana.

The Court of Appeal of Paris, in fact, has just confirmed the dismissal taken in its time by the French justice, that is to reopen this file.

"  Will French justice relaunch investigations into the event that triggered the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the attack on the plane of President Juvénal Habyarimana? "Wondered, however, feverishly Maghreb Online , reporting without further comment the summary of this case drawn up by Belgian radio and television. This Moroccan site therefore soberly recalled:

- that this attack "  is considered to be the trigger for the genocide which left more than 800,000 dead according to the UN, mainly in the Tutsi minority  ";

- that on December 21, 2018, the investigating judges had decided to “  drop the charges against nine members or former members of the entourage  ” of Rwandan President Paul Kagame;

- and that the families of the victims of the attack, "  and in particular the French crew  ", had appealed this decision.

For its part, the Jeune Afrique site had posted its latest interview with Paul Kagame yesterday. The Rwandan president warned that "  wanting to reopen a classified file is to want to create problems  ". A threat to Franco-Rwandan relations which "  are very likely to suffer from it in one way or another  ", he said to Jeune Afrique (we talked about this last Sunday with François Soudan in "  La Une de Young Africa  ”).

Also on the front page, the return to the fold of Amadou Gon Coulibaly in Côte d'Ivoire :

The Ivorian Prime Minister returned yesterday to Abidjan, after having been evacuated in emergency on May 2 to Paris, where he had been treated at the hospital of Pitié-Salpêtrière.

And this morning, in Côte d'Ivoire, the press close to the power of the Pavois.

"  Gon, Fotamana!  ", Thus launches the newspaper Le Mandat , being specified that in Senufo language,"  Fotamana  "means"  welcome  ".

On the front page of the government newspaper Fraternité Matin , AGC says it is back "   to take (its) place with President Ouattara  ".

On that of L'Intelligent d'Abidjan, the Ivorian Prime Minister ensures that he is “  in good shape!  "

In shape ? The daily newspaper Le Nouveau Réveil, however, points out that his medical check-up was "  very long  ". And this other newspaper close to the PDCI, L'Héritage, found him "  very weak and emaciated  " when he got off the plane.

In any case, his absence was also starting to "  chat in his own political family, the Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la paix et la democratie (RHDP), where the ranks are not as close as that  ", underlines, in Burkina Faso, the newspaper Wakat Sera.

Which Ugandan daily newspaper wonders if AGC has "  the forces necessary to engage the decisive battle before leading him to the palace of the Plateau?" (…) Because the road is still long, and dotted with many stages including the exhausting electoral campaign. Wandering even the major regions of Côte d'Ivoire and holding meetings lasting several hours in front of white-hot crowds is far from easy, warns Wakat Sera . Without forgetting the solicitations of the media and the aftershocks to be given to the camps opposite which will leave him no respite. (…) And it will certainly take more than the classic campaign discourse to unseat adversaries ready to join forces to make the RHDP bite the dust  ”.

So, what will happen once Amadou Gon Coulibaly officially becomes RHDP candidate for the presidential election? According to Jeune Afrique , "  the Ivorian Prime Minister should leave the Primature to devote himself fully to his campaign  ", and the Secretary General of the Presidency Patrick Achi "  is regularly cited to succeed him  ".

But according to La Lettre du Continent , the name (of Patrick Achi but also of Defense Minister Hamed Bakayoko, who has been acting since May 2) "  is already circulating around the head of state for the post of Prime Minister if Amadou Gon Coulibaly wins in the fall  ”.

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