Bujumbura : Burundian military losses in Congo, a secret that is difficult to keep well
On Thursday, January 23, 2025, the Kamenge military hospital in the north of the commercial city of Bujumbura counted 81 Burundian soldiers who were injured during the fighting with the M23 on the Congolese territory and 19 dead – a situation that evolves every day, according to our sources.
INFO SOS Médias Burundi
On Thursday, the Burundian army buried Lieutenant Patience Gapara, who was recently killed in the fighting with the M23 in the province of North Kivu in eastern Congo. His body was resting at the Kamenge military hospital. The military intelligence had deployed several men there to “scrutinize any movement” and “prevent the local press from coming to take pictures”. These agents were visible during all the farewell ceremonies of this young officer who was full of promise. That is to say during his burial which took place at the Mpanda cemetery in Bubanza province a few kilometers from the commercial capital Bujumbura and the partial lifting of mourning which followed at the officers’ mess, Bujumbura garrison.
Figures

A Congolese army battle tank near Goma. The Congolese army and its allies have mobilized their artillery around Goma to prevent any attack by the M23 against the largest and most strategic city in eastern Congo, January 2025 (SOS Médias Burundi)
According to medical sources at the Kamenge military hospital, this health facility had until this Thursday, 81 Burundian soldiers who were injured during the recent fighting with the M23 and 19 dead.
“The 19 corpses are waiting to be buried,” a medical source who testified on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals told SOS Médias Burundi. These are the bodies of soldiers who were repatriated in a very critical condition or those who died on the battlefield.
Burial in Clandestine
According to our sources, several soldiers are buried in total secrecy without their families being informed.
“A single funeral company was chosen to organize the funerals of Burundian soldiers who die in Congo. There are many bodies that are buried very early in the morning, not after 6 a.m., without the families of the missing being informed,” says a source close to the case.
Families mourn

A patrol of war tanks from the UN Mission in the DRC, MONUSCO, near Goma, January 2025 (SOS Médias Burundi)
Several families of soldiers told SOS Médias Burundi that “we learn the bad news through other soldiers in the majority of cases”.
“Since we trust them, we decide to mourn because we cannot confront the government and ask them to show us the bodies of our family members”, laments a parent from Cibitoke in northwestern Burundi. He lost a son in Congo in recent weeks. He says he knows at least five other families who lost children in the fighting with the M23.
Official version
On January 16, Brigadier General Gaspard Baratuza, spokesman for the Burundian army, called a press conference to “deny information aimed at discouraging Burundian soldiers deployed in eastern Congo”.
General Baratuza hid behind defense secrecy to avoid communicating the exact number of losses recorded by Burundi on the battlefield in the DRC.
This happened at a time when activists including famous Burundian activist in exile, Pacifique Nininahazwe, are talking about hundreds of Burundian soldiers who have fallen in the fighting with the M23.
On several occasions, Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye, who signed a deal with his Congolese counterpart Félix Tshisekedi, has indicated that it is normal for Burundian soldiers to die in Congo.
“If there are deaths on the battlefield, their families are informed so that they can bury their loved ones with dignity,” said the spokesperson for the FDNB (Burundi National Defense Force) in his press conference on January 16.
“Respect for the dead is part of the international humanitarian law,” he insisted. According to our estimates, the small East African nation has between 7,500 and 9,000 soldiers on the Congolese soil. They are fighting alongside the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) and its allied militias against the M23 and Burundian rebels based in South Kivu.
This week, the M23 rebels extended their zone of control over the province of South Kivu after fierce fighting on its border with North Kivu, hostilities during which the Burundian army suffered several losses.
The M23 is a former Tutsi rebellion that took up arms again in late 2021, accusing Congolese authorities of not having respected their commitments on the reintegration of its fighters. The Congolese authorities remain convinced that it benefits from support from Rwanda which the Rwandan government continues to dismiss out of hand.
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Burial of Major Ernest Gashirahamwe, the first high-ranking FDNB officer to be killed in North Kivu, on November 16, 2023 in Bujumbura (SOS Médias Burundi)
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