Nduhungirehe discusses Burundi and Rwanda

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Amb Olivier Nduhungirehe said Rwanda and Burundi are holding talks to find “a common understanding” and reduce tensions that arose from the fighting in eastern DR Congo.

The minister stated in an interview with The New Times on Friday, March 14, that talks to reduce tensions were still in progress.

Relations between Rwanda and Burundi deteriorated when Burundian soldiers joined a coalition of the Congolese military that included Southern African troops, European mercenaries fighting the M23 rebels, and the FDLR, a terrorist militia based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that was implicated in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi. The coalition’s alleged plans to assault Rwanda alarmed the Rwandan administration.

When RED-Tabara, a Burundian armed organization located in eastern DR Congo, attacked in December 2023, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye accused Rwanda of being responsible, deteriorating bilateral relations. Rwanda rejected these claims. Burundi closed its border with Rwanda unilaterally at the beginning of last year.

The goal of the most recent talks between Rwanda and Burundi, according to Nduhungirehe, is to guarantee that “the security of our two countries is preserved.”

“We need to have a common understanding for the protection and security of both Rwanda and Burundi—this is the goal of the talks.”

Though he stressed that it was still too early to tell whether there would be tangible results, the minister acknowledged that progress had been achieved through numerous meetings and agreements.

According to the Minister, “we met multiple times and came to a number of agreements on how to proceed.” “We must wait to observe the actual implementation of the agreements.”

The part Burundi played in the war

In order to help restore peace and security in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF), a multinational force of troops from Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda, was sent there in November 2022 during the height of a fight between the Congolese government and M23 rebels. The regional force was initially stationed in the North Kivu Province’s Masisi, Nyiragongo, and Rutshuru areas. There, it collaborated with the Congolese army to support a political process that was then in progress that involved protecting civilians and upholding peace agreements.

Although it was outside the regional force’s operational mission, Kinshasa wanted the force to combat the M23. Thus, the regional force was had to withdraw a little more than a year after it was sent to aid peace efforts for the country’s war-torn east, as Kinshasa relied on friends like Burundi, several SADC nations, Rwandan genocidaires, and European mercenaries to fight the rebels.

EAC troops cited a range of achievements and setbacks during their time in the unstable nation, starting their withdrawal in early December 2023 and ending their departure from Goma, the capital of DR Congo’s North Kivu Province, on December 21, 2023.

At the time, however, a significant portion of Burundian forces changed their uniforms and stayed in North Kivu Province, where they began fighting alongside the Congolese army, FARDC, despite the fact that others had left the country. Hundreds of more Burundian troops who had already been sent to South Kivu Province as part of a covert bilateral agreement would ultimately make matters more difficult.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye was warned by President Paul Kagame in March of last year not to send troops to fight alongside a coalition that included the FDLR, which is also accused of encouraging the persecution of Congolese Tutsi communities. Kagame also denounced the involvement of Burundian troops in the Kinshasa-M23 conflict in North Kivu Province.

“I requested to speak with President Ndayishimiye over the phone, and I did. I said to him, ‘President, I’ve heard that you are sending a force outside of the East African Community Regional Force to fight on behalf of the government of Kinshasa. In reference to his discussion with the Burundian leader, Kagame stated in an interview with the French publication Jeune Afrique, “I said, that is in contradiction with why the East African Regional force was formed, that you are participating in.”

That means you’re going to do something different. “This is dangerous,” I informed him, “and you understand the implication.” “Your presence in support of the FDLR near our border is actually threatening us,” Kagame remarked, adding that Ndayishimiye “swore” to him that the information was false and that whoever had informed him that Burundi was sending another troop to eastern DR Congo was lying.

“I’m glad to be wrong,” I said. If I’m mistaken, we’re all right. Hearing that makes me very happy,” Kagame stated.

However, they were at Goma two weeks later, or short of that time. As you can see, he even lied to me.

Kagame claimed that politics rooted in ethnicism still plagued the area.

“I consider primitivism. This is precisely what unites Tshisekedi, Ndayishimiye, and the FDLR, and we still have ethnic [group]-based politics in place,” Kagame stated.

In an interview with diplomats sent to Bujumbura on January 31, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye claimed that his nation’s army was sent to eastern DR Congo to “fight foreign armed groups.” Nduhungirehe denied these accusations last month. If such were the true, Nduhungirehe questioned why they did not strike the FDLR, a murderous group.

“In fact, if the FDNB had been sent to the DRC to “combat foreign armed groups,” why did they never attack the FDLR, despite the fact that it is a foreign genocidal group?” he said. “Even worse: why do Burundian forces work together with these same FDLR, as they share a genocidal ideology?”

According to Nduhungirehe, the Burundian contingent in the EACRF had “inherited” in 2023 many Masisi localities that had previously been held by M23 rebels, who had also given up about 80% of their territory to the regional force, as part of the ceasefire negotiated by the East African Community (EAC).

The settlement of Nturo, which is primarily populated by Congolese Tutsis, was one among the areas in Masisi that M23 gave to the Burundian army. FDLR rebels and extreme Wazalendo and Nyatura militias raided the village between October 7–10, 2023, killing residents and setting their homes on fire.

For several hours, Burundian troops positioned atop a hill overlooking the settlement silently watched the event without interfering, according to a village head.

Following constant attacks by the Congolese army and its affiliated militias, the remaining villagers sought safety in the nearby village of Bwiza, where they joined over 17,000 displaced people, according to Nduhungirehe. The villagers were only rescued by M23 fighters traveling from Rutshuru.

“The people of Nturo, who were injured and killed by the forces of evil, are now under the control of the M23, which has enabled them to rebuild their homes and live in total safety.”

The UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MONUSCO), the UN Security Council, the European Union, and any Western power did not denounce “this crime against humanity, committed by genocidal militias with the complicity of the Burundian army,” the minister noted both during and after the attack.

Taking advantage of the expulsion of EACRF by Tshisekedi, Nduhungirehe claimed that Burundian forces began fighting more openly against M23 rebels and Congolese Tutsis starting in October 2023. This was done in favor of a more offensive military deployment from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

In 2021, the Congolese government army alliance formed by the FDLR, more than 10,000 Burundian troops, 1,600 European mercenaries, and South Africa-led SADC forces began fighting the M23 insurgents.
The Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), a broader rebel coalition formed in December 2023, currently includes M23.

The AFC/M23 rebellion in eastern DR Congo, which has vowed to eradicate various vices that are pervasive throughout the vast country, including nepotism, tribalism, corruption, and genocide ideology, continues to condemn Kinshasa’s ceaseless targeting and murder of unarmed Banyamulenge civilians in Minembwe, Uvira, and the surrounding areas in South Kivu Province.

In South Kivu Province, the Congolese army coalition’s drones, Sukhoi fighter jets, and mortars have recently targeted and destroyed communities that are home to unarmed Banyamulenge residents.