nkuur kaga

The Rwandan President is not only increasingly being exposed but also isolated for coercive and hostile actions in the neighboring Burundi. After Congo, Kagame is now publicly admitting that he has a responsibility to protect those he calls endangered species vulnerable for genocide in Burundi.

However, this is not true given the facts and course of events in Burundi. Since President Kagame started supporting the negative forces that wanted to overthrow the government of Pierre Nkurunziza including the former CNDD/FDD Boss Hussein Rajab, they are all housed and facilitated by Kagame to export acts of terrorism in Bujumbura almost on daily basis.

According to the Senior American diplomats Burundi refugees in Rwanda are being recruited to launch attacks on Burundi government as violence threatens to spiral into civil war. The United States recently accused Rwanda of trying to destabilize troubled Burundi by recruiting refugees for armed attacks on the government.

The American concerns were raised in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by two senior diplomats, who cited reports from colleagues in the field that point to Rwandan involvement in the Burundi crisis.

“There are credible reports of recruitment of Burundian refugees out of camps in Rwanda to participate in armed attacks by Burundian armed opposition against the Burundian government,” said Thomas Perriello, US envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said: “We have seen a number of reports from our colleagues in the field that suggest the Rwandan government has been involved in destabilizing activities in Burundi.”

It is the first time the United States has publicly accused the government in Kigali of involvement in the crisis in neighboring Burundi.

The United States historically has been an ally of Rwanda, but relations between the two have chilled in recent years.

Burundi has been in turmoil since President Piere Nkurunziza announced plans in April to run for a third term, which he went on to win. Despite both leaders having changed the Constitution to enable them stand for another term after their Constitutional mandate.

The appetite for power by President Nkurunziza has cost Burundi More than 400 people and at least 230,000 have fled the country. The United Nations has warned Burundi that is risks sliding into a civil war and African leaders have promised to try to prevent a repeat of the genocide that swept Rwanda in 1994.

Relations between Rwanda and Burundi are at a low point, with Bujumbura accusing Kigali of supporting its opponents and serving as a rear base for a nascent insurgency. However, Rwanda rejects the accusations.  As usual Rwanda counter accuses Burundi of harboring what the Kigali calls the “Interahamwe” those who attack together and Kigali accuses them of committing genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and still harbor genocide ideology.

A UN panel reported last week that Burundian refugees had been recruited at a refugee camp in eastern Rwanda in May and June 2015, and given two months of military training.

The refugees said their “ultimate goal” was to remove Mr Nkurunziza from power, according to the report.  The Rwandan President Paul Kagame has dismissed the accusations as “childish”.

Ngabonziza  Innocent

Kigali