French president to visit Rwanda

Kigali, 22 Jan-(ANA)-Nicolas Sarkozy will travel to Rwanda next month to pay the first visit by a French president to Kigali since the 1994 genocide, Rwandan officials say.

Rwanda's foreign ministry made the announcement after the new French ambassador presented his credentials.

The states severed ties in 2006 after a French judge said President Paul Kagame helped spark the genocide, while Rwanda accused France of arming Hutu militias.

In just 100 days, some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.

Rwanda and France agreed to restore relations in November, three years after investigative judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere accused nine Tutsi officials of being behind the murder of President Juvenal Habyaremana.

The shooting down of his plane on 6 April 1994 triggered the mass killings of minority Tutsis by extremist Hutu militias. (ANA)

FA/ANA/22 January 2010----