Burundi’s president, Évariste Ndayishimiye, has alleged that Rwanda is planning to attack his country.
Ndayishimiye, in an interview with the BBC, said he has seen “credible intelligence” that Rwanda plans to attack his country.
He 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.
Meanwhile, Rwanda has already hit back, calling the president’s comments “surprising” and insisting that the two neighbours are cooperating 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 hands 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.
