The Rwandan government refused visas to French diplomats who wanted to come to Rwanda on 09th and 10th July due to the fact that their visas are sealed with a flag that is no longer a national emblem.
Jeune Afrique narrates that French team refused to enter Rwanda comprises of Rémi Maréchaux the general director of Africa and India in the French Ministry of foreign affairs alongside Jean-Pierre Marcelli in charge of Sub-Saharan Africa in the French Development Fund.
The story narrates that the French diplomats were meant to arrive in Rwanda on the due dates before heading to Cameroon.
French Ministry of foreign affairs stipulates that the program to visit Rwanda was not cancelled yet but scheduled for another date to come.
One of the officials from this Ministry uttered that there was an error that caused the delay of visas delivery but it was not a diplomatic incident, he added.
However, one of the Rwandan diplomats whose names are kept secrets told Jeune Afrique that the French officials informed that there were technological bound error.
For the Rwandan diplomat, this story is heard to digest as signs show that the visas were examined by four people before its delivery to the Rwandan Embassy for visas handover.
He finds these French claims tricky and suspicious.
Jeune Afrique affirms that the France’s Ministry of foreign affairs ‘ ICT system still uses the outdated Rwandan national flag that was replaced since 2001.
Some anonymous diplomats told the Jeune Afrique that the former national flag reflects the genocidal government that massacred over a million of Tutsis in 1994.
This might have been one of the reasons why the Rwandan government refused them the visas to enter Rwanda, observers claim.
UM– USEKE.RW
