BUJUMBURA, Burundi
Burundi has secretly sent hundreds of troops and members of a youth militia into neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo since the end of 2021 to fight an armed rebel group, a Burundian human rights group said Wednesday.
The main target of the
operation is the RED-Tabara, the Burundi Human Rights Initiative said,
referring to the most active of the rebel groups which is deemed a terrorist
organisation by the Burundian government.
Burundi has always denied
carrying out any secret operations, insisting it has acted only within the
framework of joint operations by the East African Community (EAC), African
Union or United Nations.
Burundi is part of a regional
force agreed by the EAC in June to fight the myriad rebel groups involved in an
upsurge of violence in the eastern DRC that has ensnared neighbouring
countries.
"Several hundred
Burundian soldiers and Imbonerakure -- more than 1,000 -- are believed to have
gone to the DRC in successive waves since late 2021," the BHRI said in a
report.
The Imbonerakure are members
of the youth league of the ruling CNDD-FDD party of President Evariste
Ndayishimiye.
"For more than 10 years,
Burundian soldiers and Imbonerakure have periodically sought to hunt down
Burundian armed opposition groups in the DRC," the BHRI said.
"But the current
operation is different in scale and duration," it said, adding that about
700 were estimated to be on DRC soil in the early phase of the deployment in
December.
The rights group, which is
based abroad, said it collected testimonies from soldiers, relatives and
members of the ruling and opposition parties.
It said it was not able to
confirm the exact numbers of troops or incursions, although it reported that
the UN Group of Experts collected information on 17 incursions in the Uvira
region between September last year and this March.
"Some soldiers are
ordered to swap their military uniforms for civilian clothes and leave behind
possessions that could identify them," said the BHRI.
The report said those
returning have been warned not to talk about their mission, and little or no
explanation is given to the families of those who die on the battlefield.
It said some Imbonerakure have
become angry about their treatment during the military operation, with some
saying they felt they had been deceived or abandoned.
In May, Ndayishimiye said he
was ready "to dialogue" with Burundian rebels in DRC, in particular
RED-Tabara and the National Forces of Liberation (FNL).
Founded in 2011, RED-Tabara
has been accused of a string of attacks in Burundi since 2015.
In September it claimed
responsibility for an attack on the international airport in Bujumbura, the
country's economic capital. - AFP
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