Belgium-Rwanda: No official Belgian representative at the commemoration of the Rwandan genocide

Brussels, April 14^th, 2025 (CPA) – Belgium’s Rwandan community celebrated the 31st anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Liege on Saturday, without a single representative from the city, due to the breakdown in diplomatic relations between Rwanda and Belgium, according to Belgian French-language radio and television. “Last year, however, the commemoration was celebrated with great pomp and ceremony at the town hall with the local authorities. On Saturday, around 200 people gathered in the Parc d’Avroy for the ceremony in front of the memorial stele”, RTBF reported. Justifying this boycott, “in particular with regard to the situation in the Great Lakes region”, the city of Liège asserted that there was no malaise with the Rwandan community, but that it wanted “to avoid stirring up tensions and importing to Liège the international conflicts between Congolese and Rwandans”, following Rwanda’s aggression against the Democratic Republic of Congo. No local political officials were present at the ceremony, with the exception of a local councilor from the opposition Ecolo party. Nor were any Rwandan officials present at the event. “In fact, unlike in previous years, no official representative of the Rwandan state was present”, noted the source.ACP/