Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Friday appointed Aziz Akhannouch of the liberal RNI party as prime minister and asked him to form a government, state news agency MAP reported.

The king appointed Akhannouch “head of the government and tasked him with forming a new government”, following Wednesday’s polls, a statement from the palace said.

RNI emerged as the biggest party in Wednesday’s parliamentary election, taking 102 of the 395 seats while the former largest party, the moderate Islamist PJD, collapsed to take only 13 seats.

Akhannouch, a former agriculture minister, is one of Morocco’s richest men with a fortune estimated at about $2 billion. He has led the liberal RNI party since 2016.

Under reforms introduced in 2011, the king picks the prime minister from the largest party in parliament but retains veto power over cabinet members. In recent years he has taken back more powers within the palace walls, analysts say.

RNI is seen as close to the royal establishment and Akhannouch said in a speech after the election results were declared that he would “implement his majesty’s vision.”

Akhannouch, whose holding company operates in the fuel and gas distribution business, and was targeted by a consumer boycott campaign in 2018 over prices, has pushed RNI as a champion of social and economic reforms.

It must now build a governing coalition that can command a parliamentary majority of at least 198 seats.

The next-largest party after Wednesday’s vote was PAM, which is also liberal and pro-establishment, with 86 seats.

The PJD, whose leader Saad Dine El Otmani had been prime minister since 2017, has complained of violations in the election including what it said was vote buying by rivals.

However, after securing only 13 seats compared to 125 in 2016 it has said it will go into opposition and not seek to join the next governing coalition. Otmani and some other senior members have resigned their party posts.

Source: AFP and REUTERS

On 22 December 2008, after the news that President Lansana Conte of Guinea, who seized power in a coup in 1984, had died, a faction of the military launched a coup. It announced that it had dissolved the government and constitution with Captain Moussa Dadis Camara as president to lead a transitional government. The junta promised to hold elections within one year after various African and Western governments denounced the coup, and Guinea was banned from several international organizations.

After two years of political turmoil that culminated to the slaughter of over 450 civilians, Guinea-Conakry held its first democratic elections. Subsequently, on 21 December 2010, Alpha Conde was sworn-in as the first democratically elected President of Guinea in a ceremony that many political commentators opined was the end of dictatorship in Francophone Africa. But in keeping with the gloomy France-Afrique tradition, the 83-year-old Alpha Conde staged a civilian coup and guaranteed his continued stay in power.

The 5 September 2021 military coup that brought Lieutenant-colonel Mamady Doumbouya to power in Guinea is no surprise to many in the continent and was the inevitable result of the lousy judgment of Alpha Conde. He had no democratic mandate and showed utter contempt for the tenets of a democratic system that brought him to power. Conde threatened the state’s fabric by amending the constitution to prolong his stay in power, and his ejection from office was his own making. By using the military last year to kill over 300 people who came out to protest his autocratic power grab, he deserves no one’s empathy at this time.

It has been clear to political scientists for many decades now, although not entirely obvious to Alpha Conde, that coups are more probable in unconsolidated democracies. Coups are more likely in countries with vast inequality between the ruling class and the citizens. So, any leader who fosters inequity, theft, and abuse of power, is carelessly preparing the fertile grounds for a coup to eject him from power.   

In a senseless distraction from the responsibilities of power, Alpha Conde was only fixated on staying in power forever.  He embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds that the country was generating from extracting the vast mineral resources that the maker of the universe endowed his country.

Like many presidents in Africa, Alpha Conde is an old crook who wandered into politics to enrich himself from state coffers. He has had eleven years to halt Guinea’s steady and alarming political and economic decline. Still, he failed woefully to live up to the considerable expectation that his people had in him in 2010. His removal from power last Sunday cannot be depicted in any way, shape or form as a loss to Guinea.

The story of the people of Guinea has been one of national challenges, brutal repressive political leadership, and military coups since the country rejected neo-colonial rule and became independent in 1958. Guinea has had three presidents from 1958 till date, but there were high hopes for democratic change and accountability when Conde was elected in 2010. Under Conde, the state was fragile in providing vital functions but callous in many other domains, especially dealing with political opponents.  

Guinea is politically and economically sick, and one need not be a rocket scientist to work this out. But under Conde, the government could not deliver its primary function of offering leadership, maintain order, provide public services, national and economic security, and economic assistance to those in need. Under him, repression and human rights abuses were aplenty.

Alpha Conde has left a trail of economic crises and misery. He had become increasingly ruthless and had little or no accomplishments to show for. The current state of economic and political calamities in Africa demands leaders equipped with empathy and integrity and Alpha Conde does not possess any of these qualities. Lieutenant-colonel Mamady Doumbouya and his team must learn from the blunders of Col. Lansana Conte and Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, as both became presidents through military coups.

Lieutenant-colonel Mamady Doumbouya and his team need to clean up the mess created by Alpha Conde and previous regimes. They should recognize their direct shortcomings and instantly hire experts to deliver their vision. Africa has specialists in all domains that have the skill set, talents and professionalism, and above all, the continent at heart. Let them reach out to these men and women who can point them in the right direction.

The new leaders should, without delay, solicit the help of the Guinean Diaspora. The move to release all political prisoners should not be a gimmick; it must be done without delay to show the Guineans and the world that they mean what they say. They must consciously drag Guinea from economic ruin, poverty, extensive theft of state funds and lead the country into prosperity and self-pride. They can’t afford to waste time and another generation.

Since independence in 1958, Guinea has been a sad case, but now it plays a massive role in the global commodity market as it is blessed with two precious raw materials; Iron Ore and Bauxite. Aluminum is extracted from Bauxite, and Guinea is the world’s number one producer of this valuable commodity. These mineral deposits must be used as the country’s gateway to economic prosperity and national progress. 

China is always looking for markets to get iron ore, and Guinea has enormous deposits of it with massive reserves that have the capacity to produce about 150 million tons of iron ore annually, which is about 7% of global production. The new leaders of Guinea should look for creative ways to add value to the supply chain of the raw materials in their country before exporting to China and the West.

In 2020, Guinea produced around 90 million tones of Bauxite, a quarter of the global total. Guinea is responsible for more than half the Bauxite used in the global supply of aluminum. The global demand for aluminum is growing immensely, predominantly because of its weight and strength. Guinea stands to benefit enormously if the receipts from its vast raw materials are appropriately managed and invested in growing the country’s economy.

Lieutenant-colonel Mamady Doumbouya saw combats in Afghanistan when he led troops while serving in the French Foreign Legion.  The time for him to serve his people is now. He has the yam and the knife. His country has enormous potential, and the people of Guinea are exhausted of old autocrats disguised as democratic civilian leaders. These old boys are bleeding our continent dry and are using the presidency as their care homes. Africans want change, and anyone who can deliver that will be given a chance.

Guineans would pay little attention to what uniforms or suits leaders were wearing if they woke up to new roads, basic healthcare infrastructure, good schools and real hope for the future.

By Isong Asu

London Bureau Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

A state of uncertainty continues to dominate politics in Tunisia, as the country effectively remains without a government one month after President Kais Saied abruptly sacked his prime minister, with the chief executive now indefinitely extending the suspension of parliament.

Saied’s unexpected intervention last month granted him an executive power, but bitterly irked his opponents, who denounced the move as a coup.

On Monday, Saied’s office issued “a presidential decree extending the exceptional measures… regarding the suspension of Parliament and lifting of the parliamentary immunity of its MPs until further notice.”

The president is to address the nation in the coming days, the statement said, without providing further details.

He is widely anticipated to announce new measures that would reassure a highly anxious Tunisian public and allay international concerns about Tunisia entering an authoritarian era.

Saied dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and suspended parliament for 30 days in July, following mass protests in several cities against the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tunisia’s biggest political party Ennahda denounced the move as a “coup,” but Saied at the time argued that his decision was meant to save Tunisia from collapse.

He said he would assume executive authority “with the help” of a government whose new chief he would personally appoint.

Ever since, authorities have placed several officials, including former ministers, under house arrest. Several politicians, lawmakers, businessmen and judges also say they have been banned from traveling abroad.

Apart from plunging the country into a political limbo, the latest developments have exacerbated political polarization in Tunisia.

The president’s critics have denounced the measures as “arbitrary” and “unjustified.”

Many, however, have thrown their weight behind the president, defending his decision to strip lawmakers of their immunity, as per Article 80 of the constitution that allows for exceptional measures if there is an “imminent danger” to national security.

Ennahdha — the largest party in parliament — called for a national dialog. But Saeed was quick to brush aside the initiative.

Before the latest presidential decree was issued, the party also announced the dismissal of its executive committee.

Party leader and parliament speaker Rached Ghannouchi has decided to form a new board “in order to meet the demands of the current period,” the party said in a statement.

“Ennahda’s head decided to dismiss the party’s executive members and restructure it in a way that responds to the requirements of the phase,” it added.

Ghannouchi is under fire over his handling of the month-long political crisis. Prominent leaders from within his party have demanded that he quit the leadership.

Ennahda has been the most powerful party in Tunisia since the 2011 revolution that ousted former Western-backed ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The party, however, started to lose support since the economy stagnated and public services declined, after the pandemic hit the nation last year and infection rates surged this summer.

Source: Presstv

Mali on Wednesday said it had opened a probe into an attempt to assassinate military strongman Assimi Goita, the figure behind two coups in less than a year in one of Africa’s most troubled countries.

“An ill-intentioned individual tried to physically harm” Goita after prayers for Eid al-Adha at Bamako’s Grand Mosque, prosecutor Bourama Kariba Konate said in a statement.

The act “comes under the categories of harming state security and attempted murder,” he said.

An inquiry has been opened “to shed light on this event.”

Goita was whisked away after a man armed with a knife lunged at him, an AFP reporter at the scene saw.

The leader later appeared on state TV to say he was doing “very well” and downplayed the significance of the assault.

“That’s part of being a leader, there are always malcontents,” he said. “There are people who at any time may want to try things to cause instability.”

A suspect who was taken away from the mosque remained in custody on Wednesday while police interviewed witnesses, commissioner Sadio Tomoda told AFP.

His identity was not revealed, but Tomoda said late Tuesday that he was a teacher, without elaborating.

Bamako was calm after the assault, according to AFP journalists. Wednesday was a public holiday to mark the Eid Muslim festival.

– Political turmoil –

The attack capped months of political turmoil in a country that has rarely enjoyed stability since gaining independence from France in 1960.

Goita, a special forces colonel in his late thirties, headed a putsch last August that ousted elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita after weeks of protests over graft and a bloody jihadist insurgency.

The junta, in the face of international condemnation, handed power to a civilian-led transitional government which promised to restore civilian rule in February 2022.

But in late May, Goita, who was vice president under the transitional government, ousted the president, Bah Ndaw, and premier Moctar Ouane, saying they had sought to “sabotage” the handover.

In June, with Goita as interim president, a new government was unveiled, with military figures in key roles.

As the African Union and the West African regional bloc ECOWAS piled on pressure, Goita vowed the government would “uphold all its commitments” and pledged to stage “credible, fair and transparent elections.”

Mali’s neighbours and allies have been viewing the crisis with disquiet, fearing the impact on efforts to stem a jihadist insurgency that is unfurling across the Sahel.

The bloody campaign erupted in the north of Mali in 2012, and has since spread to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.

France, the mainstay of the anti-jihadist operation, has been especially critical of the military takeover in Mali.

It suspended military cooperation after the second coup and then announced a major drawdown of its 5,100-man Barkhane mission.

Source:  AFP

The United States, Britain and France accused Russia on Wednesday of operating alongside Central African Republic forces and committing human rights violations against civilians and obstructing U.N. peacekeeping – charges immediately denied by Russia which denounced the Western nations for engaging in an “anti-Russia political hit job.”

The exchanges took place at a U.N. Security Council meeting after the U.N. special representative for the conflict-wracked Central African Republic, Mankeur Ndiaye, expressed serious concern at the military counter-offensive by the country’s security forces and “bilateral forces and other security forces” against a coalition of rebel groups which supports CAR’s former president Francois Bozize.

Ndiaye called the situation in CAR “among the most dangerous in the world,” saying violations of human rights and international law allegedly committed by CAR forces “and bilateral and other personnel …have never equaled those recently committed and detailed by MINUSCA,” the 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in the country.

As one example, he said, the number of sexual violence-related incidents in the first quarter of 2021 was five times higher than the number reported in the last quarter of 2020.

While Ndiaye didn’t identify “the bilateral forces and other security forces,” Russia has troops in CAR training its military at the invitation of the government.

A recent report to the council by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly criticized CAR’s security forces and bilateral forces for an “unprecedented increase in hostile threats and incidents” targeting U.N. peacekeepers and alleged human rights abuses. He said people in the country continue to face an “unacceptably high level of violence.”

The mineral-rich Central African Republic has faced deadly inter-religious and inter-communal fighting since 2013. A peace deal between the government and 14 rebel groups was signed in February 2019, but violence blamed on former president Bozize and his allies threatens to nullify the agreement.

It erupted after the constitutional court rejected Bozize’s candidacy to run for president in December. Faustin Archange Touadera won a second term with 53% of the vote, but he continues to face opposition from rebel forces linked to Bozize.

France, US cite targeting of CAR Muslims

U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mills noted Secretary-General Guterres’ report of a 28% increase in incidents of human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law over the past four months. He said the United States is deeply concerned at the increased targeting of Muslims, and the alarmingly sharp increase in abuses committed by national and bilateral personnel.

“I think we need to be clear about these bilateral personnel — the individuals committing what many are now referring to as ‘atrocities’ are not independent actors — they are operating as extension of Russia’s Ministry of Defense,” he said.

Mills said the Biden administration is “deeply disturbed” that Russia has failed “to prevent its mercenaries from impeding MINUSCA’s freedom of movement on a daily basis.” He condemned an “appalling incident in which these bilateral Russian actors threatened” MINUSCA’s deputy special representative and a U.N. delegation on a humanitarian mission to Bang, which is close to CAR’s border with Chad and Cameroon, on May 28.

France’s U.N. Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere called the situation in CAR “dramatic,” pointing to extrajudicial executions, gang rapes, torture, occupation of schools and violence particularly targeting Muslim communities, “as shown by the murder of a traditional chief a few days ago.”

“Let us be clear: Central African armed groups are no longer the only threat to the Central African population,” De Riviere said.

He said reports by the secretary-general and U.N. experts monitoring sanctions against CAR “point to the responsibility of a new actor, who is operating alongside the Central African armed forces and whose status is a mystery.”

“Some will try to deny the presence of the Wagner company,” De Riviere said, calling on MINUSCA to provide details of who these men involved in the fighting in CAR are and who they are accountable to for their actions. The Wagner Group is a Kremlin-backed security company that was implicated in the conflict in Libya.

Britain’s deputy ambassador James Roscoe said the armed groups are “fomenting instability, frankly, in order to line their own pockets.”

“And now, a new factor of instability: Russian private military companies acting in concert with the national armed forces to obstruct MINUSCA and to violate the rights of the civilians and citizens of the Central African Republic,” he said.

Roscoe said human rights violations, including acts of sexual violence, are not only being committed by armed groups “but also by members of the national armed forces and the Russian private military personnel accompanying them.”

He said the Russians will deny this, “but the evidence is increasing and overwhelming, and I hope they will reflect on the role they want to play in the Central African Republic and their responsibilities as a permanent member of this council.”

Russia: Allegations are ‘unfounded’

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Anna Evstigneeva countered that Russian instructors “are successfully enhancing the professional expertise of the Central African security forces without taking part in military actions against illegal armed groups.”

She said there are constant “dubious” attempts to discredit them without any evidence, especially in the U.S. and French media which use anonymous sources.

“This looks more like an anti-Russian political hit job,” Evstigneeva said.

“As for the unfounded allegations coming from the US, they’re not done by chance,” she said. “Our colleagues seem to see Russian instructors or mercenaries everywhere.”

(AP)

Mali’s second military coup in nine months has elicited a chorus of condemnation, with the latest stern rebuke coming from the African Union, which has both suspended the country with immediate effect and threatened it with more sanctions.

The regional bloc decided “to immediately suspend the Republic of Mali from participation in all activities of the African Union, its organs and institutions, until normal constitutional order has been restored in the country,” said the body’s Peace and Security Council in a statement late Tuesday.

The AU called for the military to “urgently and unconditionally return to the barracks, and to refrain from further interference in the political processes in Mali.”

Just days earlier, the constitutional court declared special forces commander Assimi Goita the new interim president.

Goita led a military coup last August. He overthrew the nation’s elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita over alleged corruption.

The AU also warned that “the Council will not hesitate to impose targeted sanctions and other punitive measures,” if the military refuses to hand back power to civilian transitional leaders.

The bloc said it was “deeply concerned about the evolving situation in Mali and its negative impact on the gains made thus far in the transition process in the country.”

Goita’s appointment as the interim president raised concerns among West African leaders, who decided at a summit on Sunday to suspend Mali from participation in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The 15-nation bloc stopped short of imposing sanctions, but pushed for Mali’s transition to civilian rule under a previously agreed timetable.

The military has pledged to hold elections in early 2022.

It said last week that it would continue to respect that timetable, but added that it could be subject to change. Mali’s neighbors and international powers raised concerns that the latest coup will jeopardize a commitment.

The United States and France have both threatened sanctions against Mali — one of the world’s poorest countries.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that Paris “could not stay by the side of a country where there is no longer democratic legitimacy or a transition”

The president also said he would pull its troops out of Mali. France has around 5,100 troops in Mali under a military mission, known as the Barkhane force.

It began operating in the African nation in 2013 allegedly to counter militants that Paris claims are linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorist groups.

Observers have, however, cited suspicions about Paris’s other intentions in its former colony, which boasts rich mineral reserves.

Source: Presstv

The leader of Western Sahara’s independence movement, whose presence in Spain has angered the Moroccan government, will appear before a Spanish court Tuesday to answer allegations of torture and genocide.

Madrid’s decision to allow Brahim Ghali, who heads the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, into Spain in mid-April to be treated for Covid-19 has angered Rabat.

A month later, Spain was caught off guard as up to 10,000 people surged into its tiny north African enclave of Ceuta as Moroccan border guards looked the other way in what was widely seen as a punitive political gesture.

Here is what we know so far:

– Who is Ghali?

Since 2016, Ghali has been head of the Polisario Front and president of the Sahrawi Democratic Arab Republic, a self-declared state since 1976.

Ghali is 71, the movement says, although other sources give a different age.

The Polisario Front has long fought for the independence of Western Sahara, a desert region bigger than Britain which was a Spanish colony until 1975.

Morocco controls 80 percent of the territory, while the rest — an area bordering Mauritania that is almost totally landlocked — is run by the Polisario Front.

A disputed territory, the UN refers to Western Sahara as a “non-self-governing territory” whose people “have not yet attained a full measure of self-government”.

After 16 years of war, Rabat and the Polisario signed a ceasefire in 1991, but a UN-backed referendum on self-determination has been constantly postponed.

Hostilities resumed in November when the Polisario, which is backed by Algeria, declared the ceasefire to be over after Morocco sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone to reopen a key road.

– Why is Ghali in Spain? –

Ghali’s hospitalisation in Spain was shrouded in secrecy.

It was first revealed by French pan-African magazine Jeune Afrique then confirmed by the Polisario and Spain’s foreign ministry, which called it a “humanitarian gesture”.

Citing diplomatic sources, Spain’s El Pais newspaper said Ghali was “critically ill” when he arrived on a medicalised Algerian government plane on April 18, bearing a diplomatic passport.

It said he was admitted to a hospital in northern Spain with a fake identity for “security reasons”.

Madrid agreed to receive Ghali as a favour to Algeria, its main supplier of natural gas, El Pais said.

But the move angered Rabat which has demanded a “transparent investigation” over his arrival in Spain “with forged documents and a fake identity”.

– What is Ghali accused of? –

Now “out of danger” but still in hospital, Ghali will testify by video conference in two separate investigations.

One relates to allegations of torture at Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, a town in western Algeria. The accusations were made by Polisario dissident Fadel Breika, who also holds Spanish nationality.

The second probe relates to allegations of genocide, murder, terrorism, torture and disappearances made by the Sahrawi Association for the Defence of Human Rights (ASADEDH), which is based in Spain.

Given there were no “clear indications of his involvement”, a Spanish judge refused to impose any precautionary measures such as seizing Ghali’s passport, court documents showed.

– What is the link with Ceuta? –

With Ghali considered a “war criminal” by Rabat, the Moroccan government decided to turn a blind eye at its shared border with the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, where up to 10,000 people crossed unhindered early last week.

“The real cause of the crisis is Madrid’s welcoming of the separatist leader of the Polisario militia, under a false identity,” Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said.

Madrid has accused Rabat of “blackmail” and summoned its ambassador, who has been recalled to Morocco for consultations where she will stay “for the duration of the crisis,” the minister said.

Source: AFP

Mali’s constitutional court named Colonel Assimi Goïta as its transitional president on Friday.

It comes after Mali’s second coup in nine months.

Colonel Goïta had already declared himself the interim president on Wednesday.

On Monday President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, were detained by soldiers along with other leaders of the transitional government, hours after naming a new Cabinet that did not include two key military leaders.

On Thursday, they both resigned and were released. Their arrest led to an international uproar.

The new leader said on Friday his appointment is for security reasons during a meeting with the Malian political class.

“We had to choose between the stability of Mali and the chaos. We have chosen stability. In choosing between disorder and cohesion in the defence forces and security, we have chosen cohesion in the defence forces and security because it is in the nation’s best interests,” Goïta said on Friday.

“We have no hidden agenda”

Ndaw and Ouane had led a transitional government tasked with steering the return to civilian rule after a coup last August that toppled Mali’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Keita was forced out by young army officers, led by Goïta, following mass protests over perceived corruption and his failure to quell a bloody jihadist insurgency.

Goïta, who led the junta calling itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, has served as Mali’s vice president in the transitional government formed last September.

He has held that position despite initial calls from the international community for an entirely civilian-led transition.

Diplomats told AFP Friday that the Economic Community of West African States would discuss the situation in Ghana’s capital Accra on Sunday.

The 15-nation bloc has also warned of reimposing sanctions on the country; as has the United States and former colonial master France.

There are nonetheless fears that sanctions will further destabilise the poverty-stricken nation of 19 million people, which has been battling a brutal jihadist insurgency since 2012.

Source: African News

Mali’s interim president and premier have been freed from military detention, senior military and government officials said Thursday. Their release came three days after President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane were detained and stripped of their powers in what appeared to be the country’s second coup in nine months.

“The interim president and prime minister were released overnight around 1.30am [local time]. We were true to our word,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Family members confirmed that President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane had been freed.

The two men have returned to their homes in the capital Bamako, those close to them said, though the conditions of their release were not clear.

The development came a day after military officials said the country’s transitional president and prime minister had “resigned” while in detention, a move the UN called “unacceptable”.

Ndaw and Ouane, tasked with steering the return to civilian rule after a coup last August, were detained by the military on Monday in what the international community called a military coup.

Over the past few days, the UN, along with the African Union and other international bodies, as well as the US, have repeatedly urged Mali’s military to release the transitional leaders.

Ndaw and Ouane had been heading the interim government with the declared aim of restoring full civilian rule within 18 months.

The leader of Mali’s 2020 coup, Col. Assimi Goita, who has been serving as the transitional vice president since September, seized control of the West African country earlier this week by deposing the two leaders in an unprecedented move.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rwanda on Thursday for a highly symbolic visit aimed at turning the page on a quarter century of diplomatic tensions over France’s role in the country’s 1994 genocide.

Macron is the first French leader since 2010 to visit the central African country, which has long accused France of complicity in the mass killings of Rwandan Tutsis.

The French president arrived in the capital, Kigali, early Thursday and is set to hold talks with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

He will visit a memorial to the 1994 slaughter that left an estimated 800,000 people dead, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them from Hutu extremists.

Two reports completed in March and in April that examined France’s role in the genocide helped clear a path for Macron’s visit.

The French report, which was commissioned by Macron and released in March, included a adamning indictment of Paris’s role in the bloodshed.

In findings accepted by the French government, the historians accused Paris, which had close ties to the ethnic Hutu regime behind the massacres, of being “blind” to preparations for the genocide and said it bore “serious and overwhelming” responsibility.

The commission found no proof, however, of French complicity in the bloodshed.

For Kagame, who led the Tutsi rebellion that ended the genocide and had led the charge against France ever since, the report was a game-changer.

On a visit to France last week, Kagame, who at one point broke off relations with France, said the report had paved the way for France and Rwanda to have “a good relationship”.

A ‘renewed’ relationship

Ahead of Macron’s visit to Kigali, both sides have spoken enthusiastically of a “normalisation” of ties.

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Wednesday called the visit “a particularly meaningful act” for Macron.

“It signals, I think, a memory that is pacified and a relationship that is renewed,” he told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.

“It is proof that the president’s willingness to face our history, our past, in complete transparency is the best way forward,” he said.

French officials say Macron could also use the visit to name an ambassador to Rwanda, filling a post left vacant since 2015.

But some in Rwanda want France to go further in facing up to the past and officially apologise for failing to help stop the killing of 800,000 Rwandans between April and July 1994.

They will be listening closely when Macron delivers a speech on Thursday at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the final resting place for over 250,000 genocide victims.

Kagame has downplayed the importance of the issue.

“It’s not up to me, or anyone else to demand apologies,” he told Le Monde newspaper in a recent interview, insisting that any such expression had to be spontaneous on the part of the French.

French ‘blindness’

From Rwanda to Algeria and the colonial-era looting of African art, Macron has gone further than his predecessors in shining a light on unsavoury chapters of France’s past in Africa.

The last French president to visit Rwanda was Nicolas Sarkozy, who attempted to break the ice by admitting to “serious mistakes” and a “form of blindness” on the part of the French during the genocide.

His remarks fell short of expectations in Rwanda and relations between the countries continued to fester.

Macron has presented himself as the standard-bearer of a new generation that came of age after the colonial period and is not afraid to admit to past wrongs.

While campaigning for president, the (now) 43-year-old declared that the colonisation of Algeria was a “crime against humanity” — an admission that deeply upset conservatives in France, where colonial rule has long been portrayed as relatively benign.

He has also acknowledged that France instigated a system that facilitated torture during Algeria’s war of liberation from France, and he agreed to return art looted by colonial forces from Benin and Senegal.

Analysts say these gestures are aimed at wooing young Africans who view France with suspicion, convinced that it is still pulling the strings in former French colonies where it propped up strongmen for decades.

“The fact of being from a new generation and a young president does not change the course of relations between France and African countries,” Gilles Yabi, president of Senegal’s WATHI think-tank, told AFP after the release of the Rwanda report in March.

To counter allegations of French paternalism, Macron has made a point of trying to nurture ties with English-speaking countries in Africa that lie outside of France’s traditional sphere of influence.

After Rwanda, he will travel to South Africa.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP,  AP and REUTERS)