{"id":53609,"date":"2025-03-27T22:28:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T22:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/solidarite-congo-organisers-bow-to-pressure-postpone-april-7-concert-in-paris\/"},"modified":"2025-03-27T22:43:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T22:43:52","slug":"solidarite-congo-organisers-bow-to-pressure-postpone-april-7-concert-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/solidarite-congo-organisers-bow-to-pressure-postpone-april-7-concert-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Solidarit\u00e9 Congo organisers bow to pressure, postpone April 7 concert in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

The organisers of the event announced its postponement on Thursday night, saying, “A new date will be announced very soon.”<\/p>\n

“Those unable to attend will, of course, be refunded,” the statement added.<\/p>\n

The April 7 date, officially recognized by the United Nations as the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide, holds deep meaning for the Rwandan community, and the concert has raised concerns that it could undermine the significance of the commemoration.<\/p>\n

The police had earlier in the day heeded the call to stop the event following a letter from Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who cited the potential for public disorder.<\/p>\n

The mayor had indicated that the concert\u2019s timing was inappropriate, given the sensitive nature of the date.<\/p>\n

Responding to the mayor\u2019s concerns on Thursday, the police stated that the city\u2019s police chief, Laurent Nunez, would request the concert\u2019s rescheduling due to these concerns or face a ban.<\/p>\n

“The Prefect of Police, Laurent Nunez, will ask the organizers to reschedule the concert to a date other than April 7th, due to the risk of public order disturbances. If not, the Prefect of Police will initiate a procedure to ban the event,” the police department said in a statement on X.<\/p>\n

The organizers of the event had claimed that the concert was meant to raise funds for children affected by the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the Congolese government accuses Rwanda of backing M23 rebels, a claim that Rwanda has repeatedly denied.<\/p>\n

The President of the Rwandan diaspora in France, Rwanda\u2019s Ambassador to France, Fran\u00e7ois Nkulikiyimfura, and representatives of survivor organizations had raised concerns with the mayor, warning that the event could undermine genocide remembrance efforts.<\/p>\n

Critics of the concert say some of the scheduled Congolese performers, including Ma\u00eetre Gims and Youssoupha, have previously expressed controversial views about Rwanda, adding to the tension already present between the Rwandan and Congolese communities in Paris.<\/p>\n

UNICEF France, the intended beneficiary, had already distanced itself from the event, citing the significance of the date.<\/p>\n

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

Organisers of the Solidarit\u00e9 Congo concert have bowed to pressure and indefinitely postponed the event, which was set to take place on April 7 at Accor Arena in Paris, France, following concerns that it would clash with the 31st commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000084430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-53609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","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":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","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":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000084430,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/000_36xt6ja-taille1200_67d188353f64e_1_.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/000_36xt6ja-taille1200_67d188353f64e_1_.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/000_36xt6ja-taille1200_67d188353f64e_1_.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/000_36xt6ja-taille1200_67d188353f64e_1_.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/000_36xt6ja-taille1200_67d188353f64e_1_.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/000_36xt6ja-taille1200_67d188353f64e_1_.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53609","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000084430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53609"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=53609"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=53609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}