Kigali, May 27 (IANS): French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rwanda on Thursday in a bid to normalise bilateral relations that have been clouded for years over France's actions in the 1994 genocide in the East African nation that left 800,000 people dead.

It's Macron's first visit to the country since taking office in May 2017, reports dpa news agency.

He expressed hope before departing for a new beginning in relations.

After meeting with President Paul Kagame, he will visit a memorial for victims of the genocide, which saw representatives of the Hutu majority kill members of the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus.

A commission of historians recently concluded that France bore a heavy responsibility for the genocide; one of the conclusions was that Paris had remained blind to preparations for the killings. However, there was no evidence of France's complicity in the deaths.

Macron is scheduled to depart for South Africa on Friday.