Rwanda planning to attack Burundi, president tells BBC

Burundi’s president has told the BBC he has seen “credible intelligence” that Rwanda plans to attack his country.

Évariste Ndayishimiye also said that Rwanda had tried to launch a coup a decade ago in Burundi, akin to “what it’s doing in the Democratic Republic of Congo” now.

Rwanda has already hit back, calling the president’s comments “surprising” and insisting that the two neighbours are co-operating on security plans for their shared border, which has been shut for over a year.

Despite extensive UN evidence, Rwanda has always denied arming and backing the M23 rebel group, which has recently seized large parts of eastern DR Congo alongside Rwandan troops.

Rwanda has also denied links to the resurgent Red Tabara rebel group, which President Ndayishimiye says is a proxy force similar to the M23 and is being supported by Rwanda to destabilise Burundi.

“They would say it’s an internal problem when it’s Rwanda [who is] the problem. We know that he [Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame] has a plan to attack Burundi,” Ndayishimiye added.

“Burundians will not accept to be killed as Congolese are being killed. Burundian people are fighters.

“But now we don’t have any plans to attack Rwanda. We want to resolve that problem by dialogue.”

At the heart of Ndayishimiye’s comments was a call for peace and the full implementation of an agreement between the two nations – a peace deal that had been signed in previous years but, according to Burundi, had not been honoured by Rwanda.

“The people who did the 2015 coup [were] organised by Rwanda, and then they ran away. Rwanda organised them – it went to recruit the youth in Mahama camp. It trained them, it gave them arms, it financed them. They are living in the hand of Rwanda,” he alleges.

“If Rwanda accepts to hand over them and bring them to justice, the problem would be finished.”

Ndayishimiye added: “We are calling on our neighbours to respect the peace agreements we have made.

“There is no need for us to go to war. We want dialogue, but we will not sit idle if we are attacked.

“We don’t have anything to ask [of] Rwanda [in return], but they refuse because they have a bad plan – they wanted to do what they’re doing in the DRC.”

The Rwanda-Burundi border remains closed long after Red Tabara rebels carried out several attacks on Burundian soil.

While the situation with Rwanda is critical, it is not Burundi’s only problem.

To the west, the ongoing conflict in mineral-rich DR Congo has reached a boiling point with rebel groups, militias, and foreign parties vying to control the country’s valuable resources.

“External forces are responsible for perpetuating this conflict. They do not want peace in the DRC because they want to continue looting its resources,” Ndayishimiye told the BBC.

“The crisis in the DRC is not about the people – it is about the minerals.”

The solution, he argues, is to bring all parties to the table, including “all opposition political parties and armed groups”, who must “sit together and see together how they can create the best future for all citizens”.

But in his view it all depends on whether Rwanda will show willing.

“The problem between Rwanda and the DRC is a small problem, they can resolve it without killing people. For example, I hear that Rwanda says it is going there [to DRC] because of the FDLR [a Rwandan rebel group accused of links to the 1994 genocide].

“But who [is being] killed? All I see is Congolese – why do they kill Congolese when they say they are looking for FDLR?”

Since M23 rebels and Rwandan troops began seizing cities in eastern DR Congo in January, war has forced many hundreds of thousands of Congolese people to flee the violence and their homes.

So desperate are they to find safety that some have even crossed the Rusizi river in makeshift vessels or swum to reach Burundi, despite the dangerous journey killing many people including a three-year-old child.

Living precariously in refugee camps, some say they want to go back to their country but complain that the Burundi-DR Congo border is closed. This is something Burundi’s president denies.

“No, our border with the Congo is not closed. Where did they pass to come into Burundi? Even today they can use [the Rusizi river] to go back.”

When told by the BBC that crossing the Rusizi rivers puts refugees in a position of danger, Ndayishimiye replied: “You know, we didn’t invite them.

“They can go back, we will not refuse them to go back. But when they are here, they are as our visitors. If a visitor comes your house – it’s you who chooses the room where he will stay.

“Even the food they have is what we share. They can’t say I will eat meat when you are eating fish.”

For the war to end and the Congolese to achieve lasting peace, Ndayishimiye says ⁠the mandate of international forces in DR Congo should be expanded so that they can engage the rebels.

He has also stated that ⁠Burundi forces will not be withdrawn from DR Congo until Burundi is assured that its borders are safe.

Earlier this month, southern Africa leaders announced that their forces would be withdrawn from DR Congo where they were helping fight the M23, after at least 19 were killed.

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