June 2, 1994 – June 2, 2026: two dates of profound significance, now linked by a historical and memorial complementarity of great importance.
On June 2, 1994, valiant fighters of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) rescued thousands of Tutsi crammed into the Kabgayi camp in central Rwanda, hunted down by former Rwandan Armed Forces and their Hutu militia auxiliaries, the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, who had been progressively massacring them for two months.
Today, June 2, 2026, in Kabgayi, hundreds of thousands of Rwandans are gathered to honor the memory of the Tutsi murdered for who they were, thirty-two years ago in 1994 during the genocide. On this same June 2, 2026, in Paris, the French capital, two Heads of State, Rwandan and French, Their Excellencies Paul Kagame and Emmanuel Macron, are together for a historic ceremony inaugurating in the City of Paris a Memorial Site dedicated to the genocide committed against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It is the largest memorial in France, joining the sixteen others already established in cities such as Paris, Toulouse, Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux-Bègles, Cluny, Dijon, Rouen, Montpellier, and others. With this event, France becomes the country with the largest number of memorial sites to the genocide committed against the Tutsi.
In other countries, such memorials exist in Arusha, Tanzania; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; various locations in the United States, notably at the United Nations Headquarters in New York; Geneva (also at UN headquarters); Belgium; Italy; Austria; Great Britain; Germany; Canada; the Netherlands; Latvia and many others.
This milestone reached on June 2, 2026, in Paris is not only a unique and unforgettable moment in preserving the memory of the genocide committed against the Tutsi, but also a remarkable response to the call of the United Nations Security Council in its resolution 2150 of April 16, 2014, which reminded States of their duty to remember, stating: “Requests that States recommit themselves to preventing and combating genocide, stresses the importance of learning the lessons of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, unequivocally condemns any denial of this genocide, and urges Member States to develop educational programs to instill the lessons of the genocide in the minds of future generations, with the aim of preventing others in the future."
A monument commemorating a genocide is therefore simultaneously a strong commitment to combating forgetting, a duty of prevention, and an educational tool for present and future generations. It is a fine example that other states should emulate. Never Again.