This week-end, Rwandan soldiers in pursuit of Rwandan rebels clashed with Burundian soldiers, causing a sharp rise in tensions on the western border of Burundi and Rwanda. However, both sides managed to calm the situation very quickly.
It all started a week ago. Rwandan rebels (FDLR and FLN fighters based in the Kibira Forest, according to our sources) are launching an attack in southwestern Rwanda, from the commune of Mabayi, in the province of Cibitoke, in northwestern Burundi.
“Such attacks are quite frequent, either shooting from Burundian soil or making small incursions into our lands,” a Rwandan security source said.
This time, the Rwandan army is on their heels, its soldiers occupying the hill of Twinyoni on Burundian soil, a strategic position that overlooks the entire area, according to our sources.
A military patrol of the Burundian Defense Force falls on them the next day, a Sunday. At least four soldiers, including an officer of the rank of major, were wounded on the Burundian side.
“Inadmissible” for Gitega, which is beginning to send a large number of reinforcements to the area. “The tension was at its height, it almost degenerated,” admits a high-ranking Burundian officer, but wisdom will prevail.
Burundian military intelligence chiefs Colonel Ernest Musaba and Rwandan General Vincent Nyakarundi have already met twice in an attempt to end insecurity on the common border, in August 2020 in Rwanda and in Burundi’s Cibitoke province, just three weeks ago.
They spoke again this Sunday, and a solution was found: Rwandan soldiers immediately withdrew to their homes, while the Burundian army set off in pursuit of the Rwandan rebels. The outcome of these operations: a few rebels killed and around twenty captured.