The President of Burundi, Evariste Ndayishimiye, has announced that he will never open the borders between his country and Rwanda, while not giving in to those who tried to overthrow the government of Pierre Nkurunziza who led this country.

Regarding the relationship between Rwanda and Burundi, President Ndayishimiye returned to it in an interview with TV5 Monde.

He said that in 2020 he decided to open the border, in an attempt to show that he is willing to meet the relationship between Rwanda and Burundi, which had been strained for some time.

He said, “In 2020 I wanted to show the will that I have, by opening the borders and going to dialogue. We met and talked and we had a good understanding […] There are technical groups that met more than five times and agreed, but when it comes to implementation, it is difficult.”

President Ndayishimiye announced this, while Rwanda has for some time shown that it is ready to send to Burundi those who tried to remove Pierre Nkurunziza from power in 2015, as long as there is a side to support it.

The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in charge of regional cooperation, Gen (Rtd) James Kabarebe, recently announced that Rwanda still has Burundians, and that it has explained to Burundi the challenge of sending them without insurance.

He said, “Where did we put them? We have them, we will deliver them to Burundi, you know. We also discussed how we would present it to them. You wouldn’t send people, you wouldn’t be held accountable for what would happen to them. That’s where we are.”

The Rwandan government explains that the Burundians are under the responsibility of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNCHR) because they are refugees, and points out that if they are sent to Burundi, if something bad happens to them, they will suffer.

Gen (Rtd) Kabarebe pointed out that the Government of Rwanda needs a third party that agrees to guarantee them, and they are sent on its behalf, so that if they have a problem in Bujumbura, Rwanda will not suffer.

He said: “If we were concerned, the third party or someone else who tried to remove the government [of Burundi], that’s easy, we accepted it.”

The lack of security in Burundi brought it closer to Rwanda

In this interview, President Ndayishimiye agreed that there are people from Rwanda who have been trying to disrupt the security of his country.

He said, “When they refused to send us those who tried to overthrow the government, they were involved in terrorism in Burundi. They have been attacking from Rwanda, killing people and other terrorist crimes.”

“They came from Rwanda, they prepared in Rwanda, it is Rwanda that trains them. Therefore, in order to provide security to the people of Burundi, it was necessary to close the borders until Rwanda shows its willingness to the agreement we agreed to. The day they send us those who tried to overthrow the government, we will open the borders to receive them and keep them open.”

These words of President Ndayishimiye are in line with the ones he announced when the Red Tabara group attacked Burundi in early 2024.

These are accusations that have been strongly condemned by Rwanda, which says that it has no interest in disrupting Burundi’s security.

In February 2024, the Government Spokesperson, Yolande Makolo, pointed out that Burundi’s decision to close its border with Rwanda is related to the scandal that this country had after the deployment of soldiers in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He said, “This is something that happened in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. You know that there are troops of the East African Community that were sent to the East of the Congo, to help restore peace during the Luanda talks.”

“The Burundian army was also sent to Eastern Congo, we know that the Burundian army cooperated with the Congolese army in fighting armed groups, especially M23, this is not something that was in the mandate of these armed forces EAC.”

He went on to say that “Burundian soldiers died in Eastern Congo, which was the source of Burundi’s anger, because they exceeded their mandate and it affected them. One of the reasons for closing the borders is to cover up the activities of the Army of Burundi in Eastern DRC.”

Yolande Makolo, said that she has nothing to do with the activities of RED Tabara.

He said, “There is no truth in that, we have no involvement in the activities of RED Tabara, it is a group that works in South Kivu, in the south-east of the DRC, it is not in Rwanda, it is not supported by Rwanda, we have no involvement in it. Burundians should deal with this issue individually with the RDC, instead of trying to bring Rwanda into matters that do not concern us.”

He went on to say that the fact that Rwanda and Burundi do not get along well is a matter of concern because the two countries have a lot in common.