Paris court upholds dismissal of case against French soldiers' inaction in Rwanda

The Opération Turquoise was a French-led military operation in Rwanda in 1994 under a UN mandate to organise, establish and maintain, a "safe zone", in the south-west of Rwanda. France has been accused of knowingly abandoning Tutsi civilians who had taken refuge in the Bisesero hills in western Rwanda for three days, allowing hundreds of them to be massacred by Hutu militia between 27 and 30 June 1994. © José Nicolas

The Paris Court of Appeal has ruled to uphold the dismissal of an investigation handed down in October 2023 into the failure of the French army to act during the Bisesero massacres in Rwanda in 1994.

In mid-September, investigating magistrates said they would consider an appeal by civil parties against the October 2023 decision to dismiss the case and their refusal to carry out certain investigative acts into the Bisesero massacre.