Burundi’s president on Friday accused Rwanda of funding and training rebels behind an attack last week on the village of Gatumba, close to Burundi’s border with Congo, that killed at least 20 people.

A Burundian armed rebel group known as RED-Tabara based in South Kivu, eastern Congo, took responsibility for the attack in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The group, which denied having targeted civilians, claimed to have killed nine soldiers and a police officer.

Burundian authorities consider RED-Tabara a terrorist movement. The group first appeared in 2011 and has been accused of a string of attacks in Burundi since 2015.

In a national radio broadcast, President Evariste Ndayishimiye claimed the RED-Tabara “are fed, sheltered, hosted and maintained in terms of logistics and financial means by … Rwanda.”

Ndayishimiye said Burundi has been unsuccessfully negotiating with Rwanda for two years, seeking the extradition of the rebels.

“As long as they have a country that provides them with uniforms, feeds them, protects them, shelters them, maintains them, we will have problems,” he said.

There was no immediate reaction from Rwanda’s government to Ndayishimiye’s accusations, but it has previously said that it cannot extradite people who are under the protection of the U.N. refugee agency.

Relations between the two central African neighbours improved with the ascension to power of Ndayishimiye in June 2020, and borders between them reopened.

Some of those killed in the Gatumba attack — which Burundi has described as an act of terror and said it had contacted Interpol to seek its help in apprehending the perpetrators — were buried on Tuesday.

Rwanda speaks out

In a response to the accusations, the Government of Rwanda said it “rejects comments by H.E. Evariste Ndayishimiye, President of the Republic of Burundi, alleging Rwandan support for Burundian armed rebel groups based in Eastern DRC.”

The statement further read: “Rwanda is not associated, in any way, with any Burundian armed group. It should be recalled that, in the spirit of cooperation, the Government of Rwanda has previously handed over, through the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism, Burundian combatants who illegally crossed into Rwanda.”

The Government of Rwanda also urged the Government of Burundi to “address their concerns through diplomatic channels where they can be resolved amicably.”

Tensions between Rwanda and Burundi have risen in recent months over Gitega’s support for DRC’s armed forces in the war against Kigali-backed M23 rebels. 

The United Nations recently warned about the possibility of a war between Rwanda and DRC which could drag in Burundi.

Ndayishimiye on Friday said Burundi would continue to back the DRC in the war against militia groups.

“We decided to be on the DRC side of DRC because the fire that consumes the DRC is the same fire that can burn us tomorrow,” said Ndayishimiye, a battle-hardened military general.

“I call on all Burundians to mobilise behind DRC because protecting DRC is also protecting Burundi,” he added.

A visibly incensed Ndayishimiye accused Red Tabara of killing children and disembowelling expectant mothers.

The Burundian leader described the militants as “terrorists” who must be fought “with all our energy.”

In August last year, Burundi deployed soldiers to eastern Congo as part of a regional force invited by Congo to tackle the resurgence of the M23 rebel group there. Some observers believed that the Burundi troops from the seven-nation East African Community regional force would be used to crush RED-Tabara.

However, the East African force is currently being withdrawn in phases from the violence-plagued eastern Congo following complaints from locals and authorities that instead of disarming the rebels, the forces were cohabiting with them.