Rwanda: Antoine Anfré, new French ambassador in Kigali
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Kigali on May 27, 2021. REUTERS - JEAN BIZIMANA
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3 min
This is confirmation, another sign that relations are improving between France and Rwanda.
While Paris no longer had an ambassador in Kigali, the Rwandan council of ministers validated the accreditation of the diplomat proposed by Paris: Antoine Anfré, a good connoisseur of the continent.
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New representative of France in Kigali, Antoine Anfré, 58, is familiar with African issues.
Former French ambassador to Niger, he also knows the Great Lakes region having been first secretary of the French embassy in Uganda in the 90s. He will then go to the Africa directorate of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Antoine Anfré knows the Rwandan case.
His name even appears in the
Duclert report,
from the name of the head of the commission of historians appointed by Emmanuel Macron to work on the role of France during and before the genocide.
A report which establishes "the heavy and crushing responsibility of France" in the genocide of the Tutsis in 1994.
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Also to listen
: For Vincent Duclert, “it is a big step forward which has been achieved” in Rwanda
Antoine Anfré is cited there for having alerted the French authorities at the time to the risks of violence in Rwanda in the 1990s.
The last French ambassador in post, Michel Flesch
left Kigali in September 2015.
Since then, French interests have been managed by a charge d'affaires.
Jérémie Blin, current account manager, took office in July 2019, with the mission of accelerating the process of rapprochement with Kigali.
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To read also
: France / Rwanda: the rapprochement continues between Paris and Kigali
Finally, the visit of the French president to Kigali last month put an end to more than 25 years of sometimes very fresh relations between France and Rwanda ... A reconciliation of which the appointment of the new ambassador is an additional stone and obviously very symbolic.
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To read also
: Emmanuel Macron in Rwanda: "words that have more value than excuses" for Paul Kagame
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