Bujumbura : a Congolese national arrested by Burundian intelligence

SOS Médias Burundi

Bujumbura, May 29, 2026 — Congolese national Babunga Benjamin Watuna was arrested on Tuesday, May 27, 2026, in Bujumbura, Burundi’s commercial capital, by Burundian intelligence services. According to several reliable sources, this arrest is linked to accusations of collaboration with the AFC/M23 rebel movement, within the context of strengthened security cooperation between Kinshasa and Gitega.

According to information in our possession, the security services of the Democratic Republic of Congo requested the intervention of Burundian authorities to arrest Babunga Benjamin Watuna. He is accused, in particular, of having published critical analyses of President Félix Tshisekedi’s regime and the security situation in eastern DRC on the social media platforms Facebook and X.

In several provinces of eastern Congo, some citizens consider Babunga Benjamin Watuna an independent analyst valued for his insights on historical and security events in the Great Lakes region. Others, however, accuse him of being close to Rwanda or the M23 movement because of some of his statements on the war in eastern DRC.

Before his arrest, Babunga Benjamin Watuna worked in the humanitarian field. He collaborated with several international organizations, including AMI, ADRA, ZOA, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, CARE, and UNOPS.

Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, he pursued his university studies in Burundi and lived for many years between Bujumbura and Uvira. According to sources close to his family, his wife and children currently reside in Belgium.

This arrest comes amid heightened security cooperation between Kinshasa and Gitega. Several Congolese nationals have reportedly been arrested in Burundi and then transferred to Kinshasa in recent years.

In 2025, Laurent Ruboneka, an employee at the Democratic Republic of Congo’s embassy in Burundi, was also arrested by Burundian intelligence services before being transferred to Kinshasa.

The arrest of Babunga Benjamin Watuna comes just days after the visit to Burundi by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a regional climate marked by persistent tensions related to the conflict in the east of the country.

Between August 2022 and December 2025, tens of thousands of Burundian soldiers were deployed in eastern Congo alongside the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Kinshasa-aligned groups in operations against the M23 and its partners.

The M23, a rebel movement that has become active again in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since late 2021, controls several strategic areas, including important urban and mining regions. It is now allied with the Congo River Alliance (AFC), led by Corneille Nangaa, former president of the DRC’s Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI). This coalition advocates for the establishment of a federal state in the DRC.

Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23, while Kigali rejects these accusations and maintains that the DRC and Burundi support the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu armed group whose members are accused of participating in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis.

Despite these denials, a 2025 UN expert report mentioned the presence of several thousand Rwandan soldiers alongside the M23 rebels in eastern Congo.

On the ground, the fighting continues to cause significant displacement of civilians to neighboring countries and areas considered safer, despite numerous diplomatic initiatives and still fragile peace agreements in the Great Lakes region.

After the withdrawal of the M23 rebels from the city of Uvira last January, a city they had occupied for a month, and then more recently from the Rusizi plain, the Burundian army has carried out new massive deployments via Lake Tanganyika towards South Kivu.