Rwanda won’t join AU force
Tensions with Burundi rise
RWANDAN President Paul Kagame said his country will not contribute troops to a peacekeeping mission in neighbouring Burundi, as he rejected claims his country was arming refugees as rebels.
The 54-member African Union said last week it would send a 5 000-strong force to Burundi to halt violence – that has sparked fears the country is sliding back towards civil war. The AU has pledged to send troops despite Burundi’s opposition to what it terms an “invasion force”.
Burundi’s unrest erupted in April when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a controversial third term in elections he went on to win in July.
Relations between Rwanda and Burundi are tense, with Bujumbura accusing Kigali of backing armed rebels and Nkurunziza’s political opponents.
“We have made it clear that even with the proposed contingents to be sent to Burundi, we will not be part of that,” Kagame said. “But we can contribute in a different form,” he added, without giving details.
Hundreds of people have been killed in months of street protests in Burundi, which have devolved into frequent armed attacks with gunfire disrupting the nights and dead bodies appearing on city streets almost every day.
Kagame dismissed allegations levelled by Burundian officials and aid groups that Rwanda was recruiting and arming refugees as rebel fighters. US-based advocacy group Refugees International said men and boys in Rwanda’s Mahama camp, run by the UN and Rwandan authorities, were being recruited into “non-state armed groups” and faced threats if they refused.
The charity said the Burundian recruits were trained in Rwanda and efforts were then made to send them back to Burundi via neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I haven’t even seen the tiniest evidence to that, so it becomes a lot of politicking,” Kagame said, calling the accusations “childish”. — AFP