Rwanda and Burundi are engaged in talks aimed at reaching "a common understanding” and to calm tensions that resulted from the conflict in eastern DR Congo, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Amb Olivier Nduhungirehe.

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Speaking to The New Times on Friday, March 14, the minister said that discussions to de-escalate tensions were ongoing.

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 linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Southern African troops, and European mercenaries in the war against M23 rebels. The Rwandan government expressed 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.

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The latest discussions between Rwanda and Burundi are about ensuring that "the security of our two countries is preserved,” Nduhungirehe said.

"This is the object of the talks—we need to have a common understanding for the protection and security of both Rwanda and Burundi.”

The minister said that progress had been made through multiple meetings and agreements but emphasized that it was still too early to determine whether there would be concrete outcomes.

"We met several times with a number of agreements on how to move forward,” the Minister said. "We need to wait to see how the agreements are implemented on the ground.”

Burundi’s role in the conflict

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&039;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 Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye against deploying soldiers to fight alongside a coalition that included FDLR, which is also accused of stoking the persecution of Congolese Tutsi communities.

"I called, by phone, and I asked to talk to President Ndayishimiye and I did and I asked him, President, I have heard that you are sending a force, another force other than that one in the East African Community Regional Force to fight on behalf of the government of Kinshasa. I said, that is in contradiction with why the East African Regional force was formed, that you are participating in,” Kagame said an interview with French newspaper Jeune Afrique, recalling his conversation with the Burundian leader.

"So, you're going to participate in something else. And I told him, ‘This is dangerous and you understand the implication. You are actually threatening us with your presence in support of the FDLR near our border,’” Kagame said, noting that Ndayishimiye "swore” to him that the information was not true and that whoever had told him about Burundi sending another force to eastern DR Congo were telling lies.

"I said, I'm happy to be wrong. If I'm wrong we’re good. I'm really happy to hear that,” Kagame said.

"But two weeks after [that], they were in Goma – or even less than two weeks. So, you can see he even told me lies.”

Kagame said the region was still marred by politics based on ethnicism.

"I think of primitivity. We still have politics going on based on ethnic [groups] and this is exactly what brings together Tshisekedi, Ndayishimiye and the FDLR,” Kagame said.

Last month, Nduhungirehe refuted claims by Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye – during a January 31 meeting with diplomats accredited to Bujumbura – 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.

"Indeed, if the FDNB had been deployed in the DRC to "fight foreign armed groups," why did they never attack the FDLR, yet it is a foreign genocidal group,” he 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 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.

ALSO READ: EAC leaders urge DR Congo to ‘engage with’ M23 rebels

The surviving villagers took refuge in the neighbouring village of Bwiza, where they joined more than 17,000 displaced people, victims of incessant attacks by the Congolese army and its allied militias, Nduhungirehe said, stating that the villagers were only saved by M23 fighters coming from Rutshuru.

"This village of Nturo, wounded and martyred by the forces of evil, is today controlled by the M23, which has allowed the villagers to rebuild their homes and live in complete safety.”

At the time of the attack, and after, the minister point outed that "this crime against humanity, committed by genocidal militias with the complicity of the Burundian army,” was not been condemned by the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MONUSCO), the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, or any Western power.

Nduhungirehe said that from this date of 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.

ALSO READ: M23’s Makenga welcomes Angola-mediated negotiations with Kinshasa

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.