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Photo of the week : we will not accept to die like the Congolese who are killed like goats, I have already warned Rwanda (Evariste Ndayishimiye)

Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye once again called Rwanda an « enemy of Burundi » on Tuesday and declared that he intended to mobilize Burundians from all provinces to go and fight on the border with Rwanda, if the latter were to attack his country. « We will not accept to die like the Congolese who are killed like goats… », he said.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

It is from the districtof Bugabira in the province of Kirundo (northern Burundi), bordering Rwanda, where President Neva spoke. He had traveled there to assist more than ten thousand families, victims of climate hazards.

« I am telling you here. Do not rest on your laurels. The governor spoke of the evil enemy who always wants to destabilize us. But I have already warned him, the one who will disturb us, we will also fool him, » declared Évariste Ndayishimiye who spoke in the local language, Kirundi and without reading the notes.

And he continued in the same tone and breathing heavily : « I ask you to prepare yourselves. Do not be afraid. We know each other well and besides I am in the Bugesera region, you know something about it. They (Rwandans) have never defeated us since the colonial era. Will they succeed now? Remind them of the origin of the name ‘Kirundo’! » According to some opinion, the origin of the name of the province of Kirundo, which was formerly called Muharuro, is in reference to the piles of corpses of Rwandans killed there during a battle in 1763.

President Neva intends to mobilize all Burundians against Rwanda

Addressing an assembly composed mostly of very poor and foodless residents – each household received 15 kg of corn and 5 kg of rice as assistance on Tuesday, Mr. Ndayishimiye spoke of the idea of ​​mobilizing all Burundians against Rwanda.

« You will not be alone. All of us… even the inhabitant of Nyanza-Lac on the extreme border with Kigoma (northwestern Tanzania), he will be here, » he said to some applause from the hungry residents and probably less convinced by the speech of the Burundian head of state.

And he concluded with more sulphurous statements: « We Burundians, we are not going to accept to die like the Congolese. No, we are not going to allow it at all. No, no…we are not going to accept to die like the Congolese who are killed like goats while there are mature men (in this country) ».

On January 31, the Burundian president had declared in an event of exchange of wishes for the new year with the diplomatic and consular corps in the commercial city Bujumbura that « Rwandan President Paul Kagame is destabilizing the region ».

« If Rwanda continues to make conquests of a territory of another country, I know that this will arrive even in Burundi because it is maintaining young refugees, it arms them, now it is hardening them in the war of Congo », accused Évariste Ndayishimiye. « He wants to come to Burundi, we will not accept, the war will be generalized, » insisted the former Hutu rebel.

Two days before, Rwandan President Paul Kagame had mocked Burundi, in a virtual summit of the heads of state of the East African Community, EAC, in which Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi had not participated and Mr. Neva had attended with great difficulty due to the poor internet connection. Kagame said, « And above all, I do not understand how Tshisekedi continues to think that he is going to solve the problems related to the rights of the people militarily, to kill them, to slaughter them, to bring in forces that are ready to help, like in particular Burundi – well, I do not know if it has been useful in the last days or weeks since they have been doing this ».

And during a lunch with diplomats accredited to Kigali on January 16, Paul Kagame had directly accused Burundi of supporting the Hutu-FDLR genocidaires.

« Can you explain to me why the FDLR are in Congo and are being helped by the government of Congo which also brought Burundi under the same ideology, supposedly to fight the M23 which is of Tutsi ethnicity and therefore linked to Kagame…they have no right to live, they must be gotten rid of! You leave that intact and you come to complain about the probable presence of the Rwandan army in Congo! What do you really think you are talking about? », Kagame addressed the ambassadors.

The two sister nations of the Great Lakes region of Africa and members of the East African economic bloc, are led by former rebels who look at each other like dogs. Rwanda is ruled by the former Tutsi rebels of the RPF that ended the genocide against the Tutsis in 1994 while the ruling party in Burundi, the CNDD-FDD, is a former Hutu rebellion that came to power in 2005 thanks to the Arusha peace agreement (Tanzania) of 2000.

In 2024, Burundian authorities closed borders with Rwanda, accusing it of harboring rebels who want to destabilize the Burundian territory. Rwanda continues to accuse Burundi of collaborating with the Hutu-FDLR genocidaires, of sheltering them and maintaining them. Recently, Rwandan authorities went further by claiming that they are in possession of a long list of Burundian officials who played a role in the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda.

Burundi has sent troops to help the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) and their allies in the fighting against the M23, an armed group suspected of receiving support from Rwanda, which the Rwandan government has repeatedly dismissed.

This is the first time that the Burundian president has mentioned a possible confrontation with Rwanda, even though the Burundian authorities have mobilized several soldiers and members of the CNDD-FDD youth league, the Imbonerakure, on the border with its northern neighbor since last year.

Our photo : Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye on the sidelines of the celebration of the day dedicated to the Imbonerakure, on August 31, 2024 in the commercial city of Bujumbura. He said he intended to mobilize Burundians from all provinces against Rwanda (SOS Médias Burundi)