Presidents Macron, Kagame inaugurate Rwanda genocide memorial in Paris

Macron said the memorial placed the genocide of the Tutsis "at the heart ​of our capital and our history", and that ​it was "the culmination of a long and painstaking ⁠quest for the truth".

In May 2021, during a ​visit to Rwanda, Macron recognised his country’s responsibility ​in the Rwandan genocide and said he hoped for forgiveness, seeking to reset relations after years of Rwandan accusations that France ​was complicit in the 1994 slaughter of an ​estimated 800,000 people — mostly ethnic Tutsis. However, he stopped short ‌of ⁠issuing a formal apology.

This was after a commission established by Macron concluded in March 2021 that France had been blinded by its colonial attitude to events ​leading up to ​the genocide ⁠and bore a "serious and overwhelming" responsibility for failing to foresee the slaughter.

The memorial ​on the banks of the Seine ​river in ⁠the heart of Paris is named "L'Archive". It was designed by Portuguese artist Grada Kilomba. It consists of ⁠two ​black steles and bears an engraved ​tribute to the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children ​massacred between April and July 1994.