The Commonwealth group of nations has accepted Rwanda as its 54th member. The move was announced at the end of a biannual summit of body, which is made up mostly of former British colonies, in Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday.
It has been seen as an indication of the central African nation’s emergence from its recent violent history.
"My government sees this accession as recognition of the tremendous progress this country has made in the last 15 years," Louise Mushikiwabo, the minister of information, was quoted as saying in the state-run New Times newspaper.
It came on the same day that France and Rwanda agreed to restore diplomatic ties in Kigali, Rwanda‘s capital, three years after they were severed.
French-speaking Rwanda‘s acceptance into the Commonwealth – a grouping symbolically headed by Britain‘s Queen Elizabeth II – had been anticipated.
Kigali has been rebuilding its economy and working towards political stability since an ethnic genocide in 1994 in which about 800,000 people died.
Source: Africa Daily
(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)
