Photo of the week : towards a further deterioration of relations between Burundi and Rwanda?

President Évariste Ndayishimiye accused Rwanda last Friday of “maintaining and training Red Tabara rebels to kill elderly people, pregnant women and children”. He affirmed that they are fed, hosted, accommodated and taken care of in terms of logistics and financial means by the country which hosts them, Rwanda. The spokesperson for the Rwandan government said in a press release that there is no truth in the words of President Ndayishimiye. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

On December 29, 2023, the Burundian head of state hosted an end-of-year public conference. He returned to the attacks by the armed group Red Tabara which killed 20 persons on December 22 in Gatumba not far from the border with the DRC, according to a press release from the Burundian government.

He didn’t miss his target. Rwanda is accused of supporting the armed group described as a terrorist movement by the Burundian authorities.

“We know where Red-Tabara’s head is. For two years we have been negotiating for them to be extradited to be tried here because you know that it is they themselves who have committed the irreparable in 2015. We are very angry, I would say that we have failed, they did not deliver them to us. These groups are housed, fed and taken care of in terms of logistics and financial means by the country which houses them. It is Rwanda”, accused President Neva.

Hatred between Burundians and Rwandans

I would advise Rwanda…if you continue to support someone who kills babies, you are sowing hatred between Burundian and Rwandan citizens. It is not normal that you feed someone who massacres elderly women and children and expect Burundians to remain happy, continued Mr. Ndayishimiye.

No claims

Journalists wanted to know if the Burundian head of state is ready to listen to the rebels.

“If they were real politicians, they would have sought to contact the head of state, a minister, but they are attacking simple citizens. And if they wanted to overthrow institutions by force of arms, they “would attack the army and the police to recover the country. But they are doing the opposite. They only engage in massacres. It is very shameful to see Burundians resorting to violence again today”, said he insisted.

And he drove the point home.

“They are not politicians, they are assassins, terrorists, let them tell us how they can dare to kill children, massacre pregnant women, kill a three-year-old child…”.

Rwanda trains them to kill

The Burundian president made more serious allegations.

“I advise Rwanda which trains them militarily and moreover it trains them to kill, we advise them to hand them over to Burundian justice so that Burundian women have peace”, he hoped.

“As long as they have a country that provides them with uniforms, feeds them, protects them, houses them, takes care of them, we will have problems”, he insisted, predicting a bad future for Rwanda.

Relations between the two sister nations of Africa’s Great Lakes deteriorated in 2015 following another controversial term of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza this year. Burundian authorities have criticized Rwanda for having received perpetrators of the failed coup d’état in the spring of the same year.

In a statement, Yolande Makolo, spokesperson for the Rwandan government, said shortly after President Neva’s announcement that “there is no truth in President Ndayishimiye’s remarks.”

“The Burundian President’s allegation regarding Rwanda is devoid of any veracity. The Government of Rwanda rejects the comments of H.E. Évariste Ndayishimiye, President of the Republic of Burundi, according to which Rwanda supports armed Burundian rebel groups based in the east of the DRC. Rwanda is not associated, in any way, with any Burundian armed group”, she declared.

It should be recalled that, in a spirit of mutual cooperation, the Rwandan government has already handed over, within the framework of the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (ICGLR-International Conference on the Great Lakes Region), Burundian fighters who had crossed illegally the Rwandan border.

The Rwandan government urges the Burundian government to address its concerns through diplomatic channels, where they can be resolved amicably, the document concludes.

Relations between Burundi and Rwanda had relaxed after the accession of President Ndayishimiye to power in June 2020, which was materialized by the reopening of the borders between the two sister nations of the Great Lakes of Africa among others.

Our photo : Presidents Évariste Ndayishimiye and Paul Kagame greet each other on the sidelines of a summit on the Congolese crisis, May 2023 in Bujumbura, Burundi’s commercial town