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Africa Live: Sierra Leone declares drug abuse a national emergency - BBC News Africa Live: France lacked the will to stop Rwanda genocide - Macron - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Richard Hamilton
BBC World Service newsroom President Emmanuel Macron has said that France and other countries could have stopped the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where ethnic Hutu extremists killed more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Authorities in Madagascar have asked the EU ambassador, Isabelle Delattre, to leave the island, following remarks she made that they said were critical of the government. “France, which could have stopped the genocide with its Western and African allies, lacked the will to do so," Mr Macron said in a video message.
She reportedly criticised a new law - that was passed in February - for convicted child rapists to be surgically castrated. The video is set to be aired during the 30th commemoration of the Rwandan genocide on Sunday, President Macron's office said.
The EU confirmed that the ambassador would leave her post in July or August. The event is set to be attended by several international guests including French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné and ex-US President Bill Clinton.
A spokesperson for the embassy said they wanted good relations with Madagascar but warned of what he described as political and financial consequences. Relations between France and Rwanda have recently been on the mend, following years of tensions over France's alleged involvement in the genocide.
The new castration law has faced criticism from international rights groups, but was supported by local activists who praised it as an appropriate deterrent to curb rape cases. France has been accused of failing to do enough to stop the Rwanda genocide. French leaders have denied its complicity in the genocide.
However, in a 2021 visit to Rwanda, Mr Macron said that France had a duty to "recognise the suffering she has inflicted on the Rwandan people by too long valuing silence over the examination of the truth".
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