Emmanuel Macron has appointed a commission of historians and researchers to investigate France’s role in the Rwandan genocide 25 years ago, as accusations of complicity in the deaths of an estimated 800,000 people continue to cloud diplomatic relations between Kigali and Paris.

The French president said the panel of experts would look at state archives, including diplomatic and military documents, and produce a public report. The move was announced after Macron met representatives of a Rwandan genocide survivors’ association at the Élysée – the first time a French leader has held such a meeting.

The commission will examine French activity in Rwanda from 1990 to 1994 to “contribute to a better understanding and knowledge of the genocide of Tutsis,” the Élysée said.

Macron has come under fire for turning down an invitation to a gathering this weekend in Kigali to mark the 25th anniversary of the massacre of Rwandans, mostly minority Tutsis.

He styles himself as the face of a new generation of French politicians unburdened by the country’s murky past in Africa. Last year, Macron acknowledged for the first time that France carried out systematic torture during Algeria’s independence war. Some had hoped he would usher in a moment of clarity on France’s role in Africa, and might go to Rwanda and make a grand gesture of reconciliation.

Instead, Macron will be represented at this weekend’s commemorations by the French lawmaker Hervé Berville, from his centrist La République En Marche party. Berville was orphaned during the genocide and adopted by a French family in Brittany.

Rwanda accuses France of having supported the ethnic Hutu forces behind most of the slaughter and helping some of the perpetrators to escape.

France has always denied being complicit in the massacre in Rwanda, which is a former Belgian colony. Paris has continued to insist UN-mandated French soldiers deployed in the final weeks of the genocide did their best under difficult circumstances and saved thousands of lives.

During a visit to Kigali in 2010, the then French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, broke new ground by admitting Paris had made “serious errors of judgment” in Rwanda, but stopped short of an official apology.

Macron had promised a more “pragmatic” approach to Rwanda and has hosted its president, Paul Kagame, in Paris.