{"id":39715,"date":"2019-07-23T11:06:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T11:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/the-france-ambassadorial-vacuum-in-rwanda-lingers\/"},"modified":"2019-07-26T09:22:08","modified_gmt":"2019-07-26T09:22:08","slug":"the-france-ambassadorial-vacuum-in-rwanda-lingers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/the-france-ambassadorial-vacuum-in-rwanda-lingers\/","title":{"rendered":"The France ambassadorial vacuum in Rwanda lingers"},"content":{"rendered":"

France diplomatic missions to Rwanda are currently assumed by Charg\u00e9 d\u2019Affaires.
\nFlesch left Rwanda at a time when both countries\u2019 relations were souring over political tensions. <\/p>\n

Before the departure of Ambassador Flesch, France had proposed Fred Constant who was at the time France Ambassador to the Caribbean and Guyana Islands.<\/p>\n

His approval kept pending for over one year until he was re-appointed to Equatorial Guinea. <\/p>\n

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe yesterday received new Charg\u00e9 d\u2019Affaires, J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Blin representing France in Kigali and held discussions aimed at promoting bilateral relations. The latter replaces Etienne de Souza.<\/p>\n

IGIHE has asked Amb Nduhungirehe why France is sending Charg\u00e9 d\u2019Affaires to represent its interests instead of a new ambassador.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the right time comes, France will appoint an ambassador. We are also ready to assess the request but both countries are enjoying good relations. It means what happened in the past is no longer happening,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Rwanda, France relations worsened in the past following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi where Rwanda accused the country of supporting the genocidaire Government while France in return accused some of the top Rwandan officials to have shot the airplane of former President, Juv\u00e9nal Habyarimana.<\/p>\n

Both countries’ relations were restored in 2017 when Emmanuel Macron was elected France President, introducing reforms in foreign relations. <\/p>\n

Last year, France prosecution canceled investigations in Habyarimana plane crush for lack of evidence. <\/p>\n

In March 2019, President Macron commissioned a team of experts to carry out deeper investigations on France role during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. <\/p>\n

Speaking to IGIHE, Nduhungirehe has said that Rwanda is not behind rejecting approvals of new France ambassadors. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never rejected an appointment. They have never sent anyone. President Macron himself said it last year that we are currently putting in efforts to normalize relations that they will appoint an ambassador at the right time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Rwanda, France diplomatic relations date back in 1962 after obtaining Independence.
\nLast year, the chief executive officer of the Agence Fran\u00e7aise de D\u00e9veloppement (AFD) came to Rwanda and assured continued collaboration in development projects. The CEO of the institution had last been to Rwanda in 1992.<\/p>\n

Since 1962, France has sent 16 ambassadors. to Rwanda. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n
\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is now four years since France last had an ambassador in Kigali. Michel Flesch was the last envoy to Rwanda who left the country in 2015 but has not been replaced since then. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-39715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39715"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=39715"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=39715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}