By Our Reporter
Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye on Friday accused neighbouring Rwanda of backing rebels blamed for a string of attacks on his country’s soil, including a deadly raid a week ago.
Burundi said the RED-Tabara group carried out a December 22 attack near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo and killed 20 people including women and children.
“These armed groups have been provided with shelter, food, offices and money from the country that hosts them. I mean Rwanda,” Ndayishimiye said at an event in eastern Burundi broadcast by local media.
“People who kill ordinary citizens, what do they want?” he said. “Why kill three-year-olds, a child who is still in his mother’s womb. They are terrorists. And we must fight them with all our energy.”
In a statement responding to the Burundian leader’s claims, RED-Tabara denied it had killed civilians or that it was supported by any foreign country.
The group, which has a base in the eastern DRC province of South Kivu, emerged in 2011 and is now the most active of Burundi’s rebel groups with an estimated force of between 500 and 800 fighters.
“I told Rwanda it should know that if it continues to help someone who kills children, it is cultivating the virus of hatred between the peoples of these two countries,” Ndayishimiye said.
He said Burundi had been trying in vain for two years to persuade Kigali to hand over the rebels so they can face justice.
“I think the future is bleak for this country that is helping them,” he added, without elaborating.
The Burundian government said all but one of those killed on December 22 in the town of Vugizo were civilians, including 12 children and three women, two of whom were pregnant.
RED-Tabara claimed responsibility in a message on X, formerly Twitter, saying it struck a border post and killed nine military personnel and a policeman.
In another post on X on Friday, it denied it killed any civilians and said the group “is not supported by any country. It only has the support of the Burundian people.”
On December 11, RED-Tabara fighters also exchanged fire with the military in northwestern Burundi.
The group is accused of waging deadly violence in the East African country since 2015 but had not been active since September 2021, when it carried out a series of attacks, including on the airport in the main city of Bujumbura.
Relations between Burundi and Rwanda have often been tempestuous. Although ties began improving after Ndayishimiye took power in 2020, they have soured again since Burundi sent in troops to help in the fight against M23 rebels in the eastern DRC.
Burundi joined a regional East African force that was deployed in November 2022 to quell violence in the restive DRC region, but its soldiers withdrew earlier this month after Kinshasa refused to extend the mission’s mandate.
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