France has a role and a political responsibility in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of ethnic Tutsis, said President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday in the Rwandan capital Kigali.
He made the remarks in a speech at a genocide memorial, the final resting place of over 250,000 genocide victims.
Macron asked for forgiveness, but fell short of offering an apology.
He added that France must recognize the suffering inflicted on Rwanda through its silence.
Macron arrived in the East African country Thursday morning, the first French leader since 2010 to visit Rwanda.
In the genocide, between April 7 and July 15, 1994, an estimated one million people, mainly from the Tutsi ethnic community and moderate Hutus, were killed over the span of 100 days.
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