Antoine Anfré appointed Ambassador of France in Kigali, after six years of vacancy

Published on : 06/13/2021 – 11:02Modified : 06/13/2021 – 11:04

The symbol of reconciliation. The Rwandan Council of Ministers validated, on Saturday, June 12, Paris’ proposal to appoint diplomat Antoine Anfré as French ambassador in Kigali. This announcement thus puts an end to six years of vacancy in this post and marks the warming of relations between the two countries.

This appointment indeed comes in a context of normalization of Franco-Rwandan relations after 27 years of “bitter distance”. On May 27, ten days after receiving his counterpart in Paris, Emmanuel Macron, visiting Kigali, gave a highly symbolic speech in which he recognized France’s “overwhelming responsibility” for the genocide in Rwanda. It was on this occasion that he affirmed his wish to relocate a French ambassador to the country.

A great connoisseur of Africa

At 58, Antoine Anfré is a great connoisseur of Africa. After having been first secretary of the French embassy in Uganda in the 1990s, he was appointed French ambassador to Niger. He had been working for several years in the Africa department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recalls RFI.

Antoine Anfré is also cited in the Duclert report, which analyzes the role of France during and before the genocide in Rwanda, for having alerted Paris to the risks of violence in this country.

His predecessor, Michel Flesch, left Rwanda in 2015. Since 2019, the French Embassy in Kigali has been placed under the responsibility of the charge d’affaires, Jérémie Blin.