The Paris police chief on Thursday asked the organizers of a concert called "Solidarité Congo" planned for April 7, International Day of Remembrance of the Rwandan Genocide, to postpone it to another date, warning that if he did not, he would ban it.

In a message posted on the social network X, Laurent Nuñez explained that he would initiate the banning procedure "given the risk of public disorder" that would result from maintaining the concert on April 7.

Rwandan associations have been calling for several weeks for the postponement of this concert at the Accor Arena (Bercy) to benefit children who are victims of the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), given the symbolic significance of April 7.

In a letter dated March 10, but made public only Tuesday, the City of Paris had asked the prefect to ban the concert on April 7. The day before, organizers had announced that this "essential event" would go ahead, with performances by big names in rap such as Gims, Youssoupha, and Gazo.

In its letter, the Paris city hall said it fears public order disturbances "given the existing tensions between the Rwandan and Congolese communities in Paris."

"Hateful exchanges and comments made against Rwandans and Tutsis on social media in connection with the announcement of this concert have confirmed in the eyes of the City of Paris the need to cancel the concert if it were to be held on this date," it added.

For 30 years, eastern DRC, a region rich in natural resources and bordering Rwanda, has been ravaged by deadly violence involving a myriad of armed groups and some neighboring countries.

This violence has recently intensified amid a lightning offensive by the M23 armed group, supported by Rwandan troops. According to the UN, more than 100,000 people have fled the area in the past three months.

This conflict has its roots in the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis, the flight of hundreds of thousands of Hutus, including many perpetrators of the genocide, to the DRC and the wars that followed.

UNICEF, the UN child protection agency to which the proceeds were to be donated, disassociated itself from the event, deeming it "impossible" to benefit from a charity concert organized on the day commemorating the genocide that left at least 800,000 dead, the majority of them Tutsis.