Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Olivier Nduhungirehe, has refuted the claim made by Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye that the Burundi National Defense Forces (FDNB) were deployed to eastern DR Congo to fight foreign armed groups, wondering why they did not attack genocidal militia FDLR. Nduhungirehe was referring to Ndayishimiye’s speech which he delivered on Friday, January 31, to the diplomatic corps accredited to Bujumbura. “The problem is that this statement does not stand up to the truth, and to facts that can be easily verified on the ground,”the minister said referring to Burundi’s distorted speech. “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,” he added. ALSO READ: DR Congo crisis: M23 announces plans to march to Kinshasa Nduhungirehe recalled that within the framework of the ceasefire negotiated by the East African Community (EAC), the FDNB contingent, which was deployed in the EAC Regional Force (EACRF), had inherited in 2023 many localities in the Masisi territory, previously held by the M23, which had also ceded to the EACRF around 80 per cent of the territories it held. ALSO READ: DR Congo: Burundi troops taking over M23 positions significant milestone, says regional force These localities in the Masisi territory, ceded by the M23 to the Burundian army in 2023, included the village of Nturo, mainly inhabited by Congolese Tutsi, he indicated. But, he pointed out, from October 7 to 10, 2023, the extremist Nyatura and Wazalendo militias, as well as the FDLR genocidal forces , decided to attack this village in a scorched earth operation, adding that 300 houses of Congolese Tutsi were thus burned and reduced to ashes, in a cleverly organized ethnic cleansing. According to the chief of this village, the Burundian forces were stationed, accomplices, on a hill overlooking the village of Nturo, calmly observing the scene for several hours, without intervening. ALSO READ: EAC leaders urge DR Congo to ‘engage with’ M23 rebels The surviving villagers of Nturo took refuge in the neighbouring village of Bwiza, where they joined more than 17,000 displaced people, victims of incessant attacks by the FARDC and its numerous 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,” he remarked. “I would like to point out here that this crime against humanity, committed by genocidal militias with the complicity of the Burundian army, has not been condemned by the MONUSCO, nor by the United Nations Security Council, nor by the European Union, nor by any Western power,” he asserted. “It is these same powers, who arrogate to themselves the privilege of moral values but remain silent in the face of evil, who today have the nerve to return to demand that the M23, supported by Rwanda as they say, once again place these poor villagers under the yoke of their executioners,” he expressed. As for the Burundian forces, Nduhungirehe said, from this date of October 2023, they engaged in more open fighting against the M23 and the Congolese Tutsi, taking advantage of the expulsion of the EACRF by President Tshisekedi, in favour of a more offensive SAMIDRC – the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
