Foreign minister Olivier Nduhungirehe has described as "unfortunate" claims by Burundian president Evariste Ndayishimiye that Rwanda was planning to attack his country.
The claims, the minister said, have been made at a time when the "military and intelligence authorities of the two countries are currently in discussion," even agreeing on the need for "a military and verbal de-escalation."
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Just over a week ago, Nduhungirehe said the two countries were engaged in talks aimed at reaching "a common understanding" and to calm tensions resulting from the conflict in eastern DR Congo.
Speaking to the BBC, Ndayishimiye, without providing evidence, claimed he had received "credible intelligence" that Rwanda was planning an attack.
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In a post on X Tuesday, Nduhungirehe said: "This statement by HE the President of Burundi is unfortunate, especially since the military and intelligence authorities of the two countries are currently in discussion, and have even agreed on the need for a military and verbal de-escalation.
https://x.com/onduhungirehe/status/1904504999213760819
"I had also discussed this with my Burundian counterpart on the sidelines of the joint EAC-SADC ministerial meeting in Harare on March 17, 2025, and we were completely on the same wavelength on this issue."
Rwanda will, nevertheless, the minister added, continue its commitment to peace with Burundi and in the Great Lakes region, "while hoping for a little calm and serenity in official statements from the other side of the Akanyaru."
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In the recent past, Rwanda and Burundi relations took a nosedive after Burundian soldiers joined a coalition of the Congolese armed forces which included FDLR, a DR Congo-based terrorist militia founded in mid-2000 by remnants of the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Southern African troops, and European mercenaries in the war against M23 rebels.
There were concerns that the coalition was planning to attack Rwanda.
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Bilateral relations worsened when Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye accused Rwanda of being behind a December 2023 attack by RED-Tabara, a Burundian armed group based in eastern DR Congo. Rwanda dismissed these allegations. Early last year, Burundi unilaterally closed its border with Rwanda.
At the height of a conflict between the Congolese army and M23 rebels, the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF), a multinational force with troops from Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda, was deployed to eastern DR Congo in November 2022 to help restore peace and stability.
The regional force was first deployed in territories of Masisi, Nyiragongo and Rutshuru, in North Kivu Province, where it worked in collaboration with the Congolese army to support a then ongoing political process entailing the protection of civilians and enforce peace agreements.
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Kinshasa wanted the regional force to fight the M23, which was not part of the regional force's operational mandate. As such, just over a year after it was deployed to support peace efforts for the country's conflict-ridden east, the regional force was forced to leave as Kinshasa banked on allies including Burundi, a number of SADC countries, Rwandan genocidaires, and European mercenaries, to battle the rebels.
EAC troops began withdrawing from the country in early December 2023 and completed their exit from Goma, the capital of DR Congo's North Kivu Province, on December 21, 2023, citing a mixture of successes and drawbacks during its stay in the unstable country.
But, at the time, even though a few Burundian troops left the country, a big number changed uniform and remained in North Kivu Province and started battling M23 rebels, alongside the Congolese army, FARDC.
Hundreds other Burundian troops earlier deployed to South Kivu Province under a secret bilateral arrangement would eventually complicate the situation.
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In March, last year, President Paul Kagame condemned the involvement of Burundian troops in the Kinshasa-M23 conflict in North Kivu Province, saying that he warned Ndayishimiye against deploying soldiers to fight alongside a coalition that included FDLR, which is also accused of stoking the persecution of Congolese Tutsi communities. FDLR is a DR Congo-based terrorist militia founded in mid-2000 by remnants of the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
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Last month, Nduhungirehe refuted claims by Ndayishimiye - during a January 31 meeting with diplomats accredited to Burundi - that his country's army was deployed to eastern DR Congo to "fight foreign armed groups."
Nduhungirehe wondered why, if that was the case, they did not attack genocidal militia FDLR.
If the FDNB had been deployed in DR Congo to "fight foreign armed groups," why did they not attack FDLR, yet it is a foreign genocidal group," the minister wondered.
"Worse: why do the Burundian forces collaborate instead with these same FDLR, being motivated by a genocidal ideology that they share."
Nduhungirehe recalled that within the framework of the ceasefire negotiated by the East African Community (EAC), the Burundian contingent in EACRF had "inherited," in 2023, many localities in DR Congo's Masisi territory, previously held by M23 rebels, which had also ceded to the regional force around 80 per cent of the territories it held.
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The localities in Masisi territory ceded by M23 to the Burundian army included a village called Nturo which is mainly inhabited by Congolese Tutsi.
From October 7 to 10, 2023, extremist Nyatura and Wazalendo militias, as well as FDLR fighters, attacked the village, killing people and burning their houses.
According to a village chief, Burundian forces were stationed on a hill overlooking the village calmly observed the scene for several hours, without intervening.
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According to Harvard scholar Bojana Coulibaly who visited the village, the genocidal militia attacked Nturo several times after M23 withdrew, on the watch of the Burundian EAC forces.
Coulibaly said: "All the Nturo residents we interviewed agree that the Burundian EAC soldiers gave a green light to the FDLR-Nyatura-Wazalendo on the day of the main attack. This was confirmed in a video by one of the assailants. The complicity of the Burundian EAC forces with FDLR may be explained by their endorsement of anti-Tutsi genocide ideology."
Reports indicate that from October 2023, Burundian forces engaged in more open fighting against M23 rebels and the Congolese Tutsi, taking advantage of the expulsion of EACRF by Tshisekedi, in favour of a more offensive military deployment from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
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The war between the Congolese government army coalition that includes FDLR, over 10,000 Burundian troops, 1,600 European mercenaries, and South Africa-led SADC forces, against M23 rebels started in 2021.
M23 is now part of a larger rebel coalition, Alliance fleuve Congo (AFC), created in December 2023. The AFC/M23 rebellion in eastern DR Congo which has vowed to uproot tribalism, nepotism, corruption, and genocide ideology, among other vices, widespread in the vast country, continues to denounce Kinshasa's endless targeting and killing of unarmed Banyamulenge civilians in Minembwe, Uvira, and surrounding areas in South Kivu Province.
Lately, villages inhabited by unarmed Banyamulenge civilians are targeted and destroyed by the drones, Sukhoi fighter jets, and mortars of the Congolese army coalition in South Kivu Province.
