1 November 2007
Bujumbura — On October 30 the police caught four Burundians attempting to cross the border between Burundi and Rwanda at Ruhwa in the province of Cibitoke.
They were heading for the Democratic Republic of Congo with the intention of joining the rebel group led by General Laurent Nkundabatware whose troops have been fighting with the Congolese Forces over the past months. These Burundians had fake identity cards which they managed to obtain with the complicity of a local official of Rugombo commune.
These young Burundians are from Tutsi-dominated quarters of Bujumbura city, namely Ngagara, Musaga and Cibitoke. Police sources indicate that they were travelling to The Democratic Republic of Congo to be enrolled in Nkundabatware's rebel group in the hopes of receiving demobilisation fees amounting to $600 per person. They are now being held in the prison of Rugombo. Seven Burundians have already reached the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This event has again proved for how porous the border between Burundi and Congo is. More than a thousand Congolese refugees fleeing raids in the eastern part of their native country have come to the capital city of Bujumbura over the last months. The refugees arrived without the notice of the border and air police forces which subsequently took a long time to issue asylum permits to them.
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