The Interview

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vincent Biruta said that two recent reports on France’s role in the 1994 genocide – one submitted in France and the other in Rwanda –  came “almost to the same” conclusion, and allow for the potential opening of a new chapter in diplomatic relations between the two countries.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet granted an exclusive interview to FRANCE 24 and RFI from Cape Canaveral in Florida, just three days before blasting off for the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. Pesquet is off on his second six-month mission to the ISS, with no less than 232 scientific experiments to be carried out on board. He'll also become the first French astronaut to command the space station for an entire month, something he hailed as "recognition for a European" as well as for the European Space Agency.

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In an interview with FRANCE 24, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said he had called for a summit with the prime ministers of Egypt and Ethiopia to "break the deadlock" over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Talks on the issue are currently at an impasse and he urged his counterparts to respond favourably to his offer. The Sudanese premier said that Ethiopia's plan to fill the dam "unilaterally" in July made a resolution of the dispute all the more urgent.

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24 and RFI, former French prime minister Edouard Balladur strongly rejected the recent findings of a historical commission investigating France's role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, according to which Paris bears “heavy and overwhelming responsibilities” in the chain of events that led to the slaughter of ethnic Tutsis.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, top US immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci discussed the state of the Covid-19 pandemic in the US and around the world. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and White House chief medical adviser welcomed the faster pace of vaccination in the US, saying it gave him hope the situation could be "under control" within a "reasonable" timeframe. He also strongly encouraged people to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Exiled Burmese opposition figure Dr Sasa is the UN envoy for Myanmar's CRPH, a committee representing the parliament that was elected in November but which has not been able to take office because of the military coup. Dr Sasa called on the international community – Russia and China included – to stop the junta's military crackdown on Myanmar's people. He called on world leaders to act now to prevent the civil unrest from turning into a "genocide" that might soon send refugees into neighbouring countries.

Historian Vincent Duclert is the head of the research commission on the French archives relating to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He recently handed over to President Emmanuel Macron a highly-awaited report on France's role in the massacres. Duclert explains that "there isn't a single archive... that showed that France wanted to be part of the criminal enterprise". But he adds that by supporting Rwanda's Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana, François Mitterrand-era France bears an immense responsibility: "when you put such an ethnic colour on matters, you end up with a genocide".

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister told FRANCE 24 on Sunday that the kingdom fully supported King Abdullah II of Jordan after the Jordanian authorities claimed they had foiled a "malicious plot" involving a former crown prince who had liaised with unspecified "foreign parties".

Niger's President-elect Mohamed Bazoum granted an exclusive interview to FRANCE 24 and RFI in the capital Niamey. Bazoum, who will take office on April 2, called the deadly clashes that followed the announcement of his election win "artificial" and fleeting.