Rwanda accused of recruiting refugees from Burundi to fight

By

Byobe Malenga

Burundi and DRC ask UN Security Council to rein in Rwanda, accused of recruiting Burundian refugees to destabilze Bujumbura

The Burundian Ambassador Albert Shingiro called for an emergency Council meeting to “take appropriate measures” to ensure that the Rwandan capital Kigali is not trying to destabilize Burundi.

In another letter to the Council, Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Congo Ignace Gata Mavita requested him “to invite Rwanda to respect (its) international commitments and immediately stop such recruitment and all operations that follow.” The Council must “condemn this behavior procrastination” of Kigali, said the letter.

UN experts have accused in a recent report on Rwanda of recruiting and training refugees from Burundi to reverse its President Pierre Nkurunziza.

The Rwandan government has denied the accusations.

According to the letter of the DRC, the refugees, once trained in Rwanda, “have infiltrated in the DRC”, with fake voter cards “to pass them as inhabitants of this country,” and then introduced in Burundi.

Burundi was plunged into a deep political crisis since the end of the April 2015 candidacy of President Nkurunziza – re-elected in July for a third term, the opposition, civil society and part of his camp deem unconstitutional and to the ‘Arusha Agreement‘, which ended the civil war (1993-2006).

More than 400 people have been killed since the beginning of the crisis, which has pushed 230,000 people into exile.

According to diplomats, the Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to on Monday visit Burundi’s capital Bujumbura to push for dialogue with the opposition and to accept increased international presence in the country to quell the violence.

Byobe Malenga

I have worked with the media (written and spoken press) for several years in various fields such as production of commercials, jingles, magazines, newspapers and other emissions. I have capitalized on the valuable experience of working with foreign radio in areas of partnership, social mobilization around water points, the setting-up of committees, etc.

I am currently working with the BBC World Service as a freelancer in Swahili, for Radio, TV and online. In addition to this I am also the officer manager and multimedia journalist at Radio Ngoma ya Amani RNA-FIZI www.rnafizi.net, as well as Editor of the newspaper ‘Journal Des Rapatries’.

I have already participated in several reporting missions on behalf of several radio stations such as Radio Television Groupe d’Avenir- Kinshasa as well as numerous training missions, animation workshops and support as the strategic planning and operational. I have already made several trips to Africa taking in Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, the Republic of central Africa and the Congo Brazza.