French President Emmanuel Macron said he recognised his country's role in the Rwandan genocide and hoped for forgiveness at a memorial in Kigali on Thursday. 

France and Rwanda have long been at odds over France's role during the genocide and activists have called for the prosecution of perpetrators, some of whom have been living in France for years.

Relations deteriorated after the 1994 genocide and Macron is the first French leader to visit the country in ten years.

Macron said France had for "too long" valued "silence over the examination of the truth" when it came to its complicity in the 1994 massacre that killed around 800,000 people.

The French president said only Rwandans could forgive France for its role in the genocide: "On this path, only those who went through that night can perhaps forgive, give us the gift of forgiving."

France did not listen to those who warned it about the impending massacre in Rwanda and stood de facto by a genocidal regime, Macron said.

Rwandan President Kagame praised Macron's admission, saying it was a "major step" in the relationship between the two countries.

"France and Rwanda are going to relate much better, to the benefit of both our people," Kagame said, even if "the relationship between the two countries will never be entirely conventional."

Macron's words "were something more valuable than an apology: they were the truth," Kagame added.

"Politically and morally, this was an act of tremendous courage," Kagame said.

Macron's visit to Kigali is meant to mark a final step in the normalization of relations between France and Rwanda, long overshadowed by France's involvement in the genocide, according to the Elysée.

In 1994, around 800,000 mainly ethnic Tutsis were killed by Hutu militias supported by the Rwandan government. France has been accused of failing to prevent the genocide and of supporting the Hutu regime, even after the massacres had started.

AP news agency reported that the streets of Kigali bore no crowds welcoming the French president with flags, unlike the usual attention that high profile visits receive. 

After the visit, Macron is scheduled to visit South Africa.