{"id":55977,"date":"2025-10-16T13:05:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/why-did-france-exclude-operation-noroit-from-external-military-operations\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T09:14:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:14:54","slug":"why-did-france-exclude-operation-noroit-from-external-military-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/why-did-france-exclude-operation-noroit-from-external-military-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did France exclude \u2018Operation Noro\u00eet\u2019 from external military operations\u2019 official list?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just three days after the war began on October 1, 1990, France deployed around 300 elite troops to Rwanda under the pretext of protecting French citizens and ensuring the safety of foreign nationals. In reality, the troops had been sent to rescue Habyarimana\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n

This French intervention was codenamed \u201cOperation Noro\u00eet\u201d, and the number of soldiers was later increased to around 800, according to Michel Goya, a former French Army colonel, in his analysis \u201cPenser les op\u00e9rations. Retour sur l\u2019op\u00e9ration \u2018Noro\u00eet\u2019 au Rwanda (1990-1993)\u201d. <\/p>\n

{{France\u2019s long record of foreign military operations}}<\/p>\n

The deployment of French troops to Rwanda was part of a broader pattern of foreign military interventions abroad, known in France as \u201cOp\u00e9rations Ext\u00e9rieures\u201d (OPEX). These operations have stretched across continents for decades.<\/p>\n

Before Rwanda, French troops had intervened in Kolwezi, Zaire (now DR Congo) in 1978. Other OPEX missions included Operation Atlante in 1954 in Indochina (present-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia); joint NATO missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Afghanistan during the 1990s and 2000s; and deployments in the Middle East, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Today, roughly 30,000 French soldiers serve abroad, according to France\u2019s embassy in the United States.<\/p>\n

{{Africa as France\u2019s long-standing military backyard}}<\/p>\n

Reports indicate that France has intervened militarily 31 times in Africa since 1963. France has conducted numerous military operations under OPEX, treating the continent as a traditional sphere of influence. <\/p>\n

These include Operation \u00c9pervier in Chad (1986\u20132014), Operation Licorne in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire (2001), Operation Art\u00e9mis in Ituri, DR Congo (2003), and Kolwezi (1978).<\/p>\n

Later operations included Serval and Barkhane in Mali, with the latter also extending into Burkina Faso and Niger. Others, like Operation Manta in Chad, Sabre in Niger and Burkina Faso, and deployments in Mauritania, Gabon, Djibouti, Senegal, and the Central African Republic, reinforced France\u2019s deep military footprint across Africa.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

{{France\u2019s silence on Operation Noro\u00eet }} <\/p>\n

Despite its extensive record of military missions abroad, France does not officially list Operation Noro\u00eet among its recognized OPEX operations, nor does it like to discuss it publicly.<\/p>\n

While addressing diplomats and representatives of international organizations working in Rwanda, together with officials from the Ministry of National Unity in 2022, the then French Ambassador to Rwanda, Antoine Anfr\u00e9, noted that many people tend to focus on Operation Turquoise, which took place in June 1994 during the Genocide against teh Tutsi, while overlooking Operation Noro\u00eet of 1990.<\/p>\n

At that time, he explained that through Operation Noro\u00eet, France had helped Habyarimana\u2019s army repel the first offensive launched by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), an attack in which Major General Fred Rwigema was killed. <\/p>\n

He also hinted at the possibility that French pilots might have operated the helicopters used by the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) during the fighting.<\/p>\n

Referring specifically to the helicopters Habyarimana used in the battle against the RPA, Anfr\u00e9 remarked, \u201cYou would want to know who was actually flying them.\u201d<\/p>\n

France\u2019s decision to send troops to Rwanda under the pretext of protecting civilians and facilitating humanitarian assistance, while those same soldiers went on to work directly with the FAR in combat operations, remains an embarrassment for the European nation. <\/p>\n

The discomfort is even deeper because some of the French trainers also instructed the Interahamwe militias, who were later involved in the secution of the Genocide against the Tutsi. <\/p>\n

{{A failed mission that ended in shame}}<\/p>\n

Operation Noro\u00eet lasted about three years, ending in 1993 without achieving its stated goals. <\/p>\n

The subsequent Operation Turquoise during Genocide against the Tutsi in June 1994, publicly presented as a humanitarian mission to protect civilians, also became controversial. <\/p>\n

Instead of saving lives, French troops were accused of siding with FAR and fighting against the RPA, which was then working to stop the genocide.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, France was implicated in aiding the escape of members of the genocidal government and shielding some from accountability, helping them flee to Zaire and even Europe.<\/p>\n

These actions have left France with a lasting sense of shame and denial over its role in Rwanda. <\/p>\n

As Colonel (Rtd) Michel Goya noted in his conclusion, France ultimately decided that Operation Noro\u00eet would not appear on the official list of French overseas military operations.<\/p>\n

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

After the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) launched the Liberation Struggle in 1990, the then President Juv\u00e9nal Habyarimana, who had long resisted the return of Tutsi refugees exiled in neighboring countries, rushed to seek help from allies. French President Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand was mong those who responded swiftly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000096269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-55977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","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":{"id":2000096269,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/noroit.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/noroit.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/noroit.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/noroit.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/noroit.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/noroit.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55977","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\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000096269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55977"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=55977"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=55977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}