Families in Burundi begin burying the dead after DRC-Based rebel group attacks

GATUMBA, Burundi

Families in Burundi buried their loved ones on Tuesday following the recent deadly rebel attack on Burundi from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

At least 20 people were killed in Burundi following an attack by a rebel group based in the neighboring DRC, a Burundian government spokesman said Saturday.

The burials took place at the St. François Xavier parish church, where a service was held to honor the victims.

"I went out to see my cousin who lives on the third avenue, I found that he had been massacred with his children," said Jean Niyonzima, a relative of a victim.

The attack targeted nine homes on Friday evening in the western town of Vugizo, close to the Lake Tanganyika border with DRC, according to the Burundian government.

"Frankly speaking, this is nothing short of sheer terror. A pregnant woman begged them to spare her life, but in the end it was all in vain," Burundian Minister of Interior Martin Niteretse said on Tuesday.

RED-Tabara, a Burundian armed rebel group based in South Kivu, eastern DRC, claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on the X platform, formerly Twitter.

The group, which denied having targeted civilians, claimed to have killed nine soldiers and a police officer.

Burundian authorities consider RED-Tabara a terrorist movement. The group first appeared in 2011 and has been accused of a string of attacks in Burundi since 2015.

In August last year, Burundi deployed soldiers to eastern DRC as part of a regional force invited by Congo to tackle the resurgence of the M23 rebel group there.

Some observers believed that the Burundi troops from the seven-nation East African Community force would be used to crush RED-Tabara.

However, the East African Regional force is currently being withdrawn in phases from the violence-plagued eastern Congo following complaints from locals and authorities that instead of disarming the rebels, the forces were cohabiting with them.

The Burundi Human Rights Initiative said Burundi had secretly deployed hundreds of troops and militia to the DRC in 2021 to fight RED-Tabara.

The impact of that secret deployment is not clear.