Burundi-DRC : Burundi sends other soldiers to Congo
According to the permanent secretary of the national security council, the second group of Burundian soldiers joined Congolese territory on Wednesday. At a time when the first group which went to the DRC in mid August is operating in a bilateral framework, these soldiers will be under the orders of the regional force decided by the Heads of State of the EAC at the end of June. INFO SOS Médias Burundi
Colonel Pierre Claver Nzisabira said it on Tuesday evening during a meeting on the state of security in the country. It took place in the province of Rumonge in the south-west of the country.
“We are going to send two groups of soldiers to Congo.The first has been requested by Congo itself in a bilateral framework. The second contingent will be deployed tomorrow (this Wednesday) as part of the EAC regional force. Both groups will collaborate, the objective being the same: to restore peace in eastern Congo,” said Colonel Nzisabira.
“When you come between two brothers who are fighting, either you are injured or you will die. People must understand that” he added.
The former vice-president of the Republic of Burundi, Frédéric Bamvuginyumvira finds it incomprehensible that a country which does not find the financial means to pay its dues in regional, continental and international organizations can “find money to support its soldiers outside its territory”. “It’s a bluff,” he said.
The Burundian authorities fear reprisals. The permanent secretary of the national security council warned the managers of hotels and houses of passage. He thinks that the rebels who will no longer be able to “hold out on the battlefield”, will go to Burundi via Lake Tanganyika and “bring weapons, cause insecurity and irreparable harm if they can”.
The number of Burundian soldiers received this Wednesday in the province of South Kivu is not yet known. Sources in Uvira and in the Rusizi plain told our editorial staff that they had seen Congolese army officials getting ready to welcome elements of the FDNB (Burundi National Defense Force). But the FARDC (Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo) and the FDNB claimed that the contingent sent to Congo in August is made up of between 600 and 630 soldiers.
So far, four out of seven countries in the East African economic bloc have troops in Congo. These are Uganda and Burundi which have signed a bilateral agreement with the DRC, Tanzania being present in the Congo militarily within the framework of the UN force, Monusco (Mission of the United Nations Organization in the Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo) much decried by the population who accuse it of being ineffective, as well as Kenya.
The provinces concerned by the operations of the regional force are in particular North Kivu and South Kivu as well as Ituri.The recent Nairobi agreements between the Congolese government and armed groups have failed to resolve the security problem in this part of Congo which is very rich in minerals.
