The French ambassador to Rwanda, Laurent Contini, has been reportedly recalled back to his country and may be replaced by Hélène Le Gal by the end of the year.
It is said his recalling back to his country was due to persistent demand by Alain Juppé the French foreign Minister and later president Nicolas Sarkozy endorsed the request.
According to a French popular magazine, Contini’s recalling back to his country seemed to have been pushed by Juppe who is said to be against Bernard Kouchner that had appointed Contini who is also said to be a strong supporter of closer ties between France and Rwanda.
Laurent Contini has been never in the good graces of Juppé whose dispute with the Rwandan authorities is publicly known.
When Juppe was reappointed as the Foreign Affairs Minister, Rwandan government did not like it calling it a bad surprise.
Juppe held the same position from 1993-1995, and it has been reported that findings of the Mucyo Commission which investigated French government in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi – that he strongly supported the forces that committed the Genocide.
Aged 44 years, Helen Le Gal is a career diplomat who is familiar with Africa.
She held his first job at the embassy in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso in the late 1990s and in the office of African Affairs.
After passages in Tel Aviv and Madrid, she joined the Office of the Minister for Development Cooperation from 2000 to 2002.
More recently, she headed the Central and Eastern Africa Department in the French Foreign Affairs Ministry from 2005 to 2009.
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