Another diplomatic row is simmering in the East African Community, this time between the “false twins” of Rwanda and Burundi.
Trouble started on Friday when after a seemingly a period of calm, Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye accused Rwanda of “harbouring, maintaining and training RED Tabara rebels to kill elderly people, pregnant women and children”.
The rebels launched attacks on December 22 in Vugizo area near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo and killed 20 people, including a police officer, two pregnant women and 12 children, according to government spokesperson Jérôme Niyonzima.
As long as they have a country that provides them with uniforms, feeds them, protects them, shelters them, maintains them, we will have problems
President Evariste Ndayishimiye
The group, which has reportedly been said to be operating from the DRC, claimed responsibility for the attack. It has been battling Burundi’s government from bases in eastern Congo since 2015.
The group had in September also said it had attacked and destroyed equipment at Burundi’s international airport in Bujumbura, but no casualties were reported.
Speaking during a public broadcast in Cakunzo province, President Ndayishimiye said the rebels are fed, sheltered, hosted and maintained in terms of logistics and financial means by “the country that hosts them”, referring to Rwanda.
“We have been in negotiations for two years for them to be extradited to be tried here but I would say that we have failed…As long as they have a country that provides them with uniforms, feeds them, protects them, shelters them, maintains them, we will have problems,” Ndayishimiye, the immediate former EAC chairman, said referring to Rwanda.
In a rejoinder the same day, Rwanda through the Government Spokesperson, rejected the allegations, saying it is not associated with Burundian armed groups based in Eastern DRC, or any other Burundian armed group.
“It should be recalled that, in the spirit of mutual cooperation, the Government of Rwanda has previously handed over, through the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism, Burundian combatants who illegally crossed into Rwanda, ” the statement said.
Rwanda also said their Burundian counterparts ought to address their concerns through diplomatic channels, where they can be resolved amicably.
On July 30, 2021, Rwanda Defence Forces said it had handed over to Burundi 19 Burundian combatants, who crossed to its territory on September 29, 2020.
“The combatants were apprehended while crossing into Rwanda along the border stretch in Nyungwe Forest, Ruheru Sector of Nyaruguru District and informed the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM) before taking them into custody,” RDF said at the time.
The handover/takeover was facilitated by the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM) and witnessed by the UN Special Envoy to Great Lakes Region on July 30, 2021 at Nemba Border Post.
Rwanda was represented at the handover by Head of Defence Intelligence Brig Gen V Nyakarundi, while Burundi was represented by Head of Military Intelligence Col E. Musaba.
The two countries have had strained relations since 2015. This is after former President Pierre Nkurunziza’s (now deceased) government accused Rwanda of supporting its opponents and providing refuge to individuals behind the failed coup in 2015.
There, however, have been some rapprochement since the election of Ndayishimiye as President in June 2020, with government and security officials meeting publicly since August 2020 to discuss security at common borders and exchange of combatants.
In January 2022, President Ndayishimiye sent his Minister of EAC Affairs as an envoy to led a delegation that delivered a message to Rwanda President Paul Kagame. Details were not made public.
Later in March, President Ndayishimiye received a message from President Kagame through a high-level delegation led by Minister of Defence Maj Gen Albert Murasira, in Gitega.
In February 2023, after the Extra-Ordinary Summit of EAC Heads of State, President Ndayishimiye and Kagame held talks in Burundi.
President Kagame had last visited Burundi in 2008.
The diplomatic spat between Rwanda and Burundi adds to the Rwanda-DRC tensions that risk escalating to war.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi declared at a political rally that if he secures a second term, he will seek Parliament’s approval to declare war on Rwanda in the instant they fire the first shot at Kinshasa. Kagame, though with caution, dared him to bring it on.
All this is happening at a time a joint community military intervention in the eastern DRC through the East African Community Regional Force failed to pacify the insecure and unstable eastern region and finally withdrew in December at the directive of Kinshasa.
Southern African regional bloc SADC is now deploying, with over 200 South African soldiers arriving at Goma Airport in North Kivu on December 27.
Other countries expected to send troops to DRC include Malawi and Tanzania.
And even as DRC deals with its security challenges, a political crisis is in the offing, with the opposition rejecting the yet to be announced presidential election results and calling for nationwide demonstrations against what it terms electoral fraud.
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