On Sunday, 7 April, the president of the National Council and her delegation will be in Gisozi for a commemoration to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1994 genocide, in which over 800,000 people lost their lives. The commemoration will be followed by the ‘Marche du Souvenir’ and the ‘Soirée de la Mémoire’ in Kigali. The State Secretary of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Pascale Baeriswyl, will also participate in this commemoration day.
Alongside the commemoration ceremonies, talks will take place with the speaker of the Rwandan Chamber of Deputies, Donatille Mukabalisa, certain members of parliamentary committees, Minister of Health Diane Gashumba and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Richard Sezibera. Ms Carobbio Guscetti and her delegation will also visit a number of international development projects in which Switzerland is involved.
Switzerland intends to respond as effectively as possible to the region’s challenges by making coordinated use of its three foreign policy instruments – development cooperation, promotion of peace and human rights, and humanitarian aid. The main focuses of Switzerland’s work in the Great Lakes region (which also includes Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo) are supporting the development of public health and basic water and hygiene services, promoting vocational training and diversifying employment opportunities. There will be even greater concentration on these areas in future. Bilateral relations between Switzerland and Rwanda have long centred around development cooperation, but now both countries are keen to intensify and expand the relationship.
From 10 to 12 April, the delegation will visit Mozambique, which was recently hit by Cyclone Idai. The official visit will be an expression of Switzerland’s support for the people of Mozambique at this difficult time. Ms Carobbbio will be received by the president of the Republic of Mozambique Verónica Nataniel Macamo Ndlovo and some members of the parliament of Mozambique. Meetings with the health minister Nazira Valy Abdula and the governor of the Province of Nampula, Victor Borges, are also planned. The programme also includes visits to development cooperation projects.
Mozambique is a priority country in Swiss development cooperation. The development cooperation programme focuses on three areas: economic development, health and local governance. Switzerland supports local projects, in particular in the northern provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula. On a national level, Switzerland supports the government in carrying out institutional reforms in various sectors. Switzerland has helped Mozambique to recover from the effects of the civil war which shook the country from 1976 to 1992.
The delegation accompanying Ms Carobbio Guscetti to Rwanda and Mozambique will comprise the vice president of the National Council, Isabelle Moret (FDP, Vaud), National Council members Thomas Aeschi (SVP, Zug), Isabelle Chevalley (GLP, Vaud), Leo Müller (CVP, Lucerne), Rosmarie Quadranti (BDP, Zurich) and Manuel Tornare (SP, Geneva), and Ambassador Claudio Fischer, the head of International Relations and Multilingualism.