Despite Rwanda’s efforts to revive bilateral ties with Burundi which have been slow since 2015, accusations by President Évariste Ndayishimiye of Kigali backing RED-Tabara rebels were followed by the closure of the border in early January.

Burundi previously closed its borders with Rwanda in 2015 during political violence in Burundi. The border reopened in 2022.

Reacting to the border closure, Kigali stated that the "unfortunate decision will restrict the free movement of people and goods between the two countries, and violates the principles of regional cooperation and integration of the East African Community.”

Rwanda has been calling on Burundi to address its concerns through diplomatic channels where they can be resolved amicably. Rwanda’s foreign policy has been clear on the need for good relations with other countries, especially neighbouring ones.

The Rwandan government has engaged with other sovereign states with mutual respect, among other considerations.

In 2013 when the Bujumbura market was on fire, Rwandan military helicopters were deployed to help extinguish the fire. Rwanda sent an MIL MI 17 (RAF 0105) fitted with additional equipment to pick water from an open reservoir.

In the spirit of mutual cooperation, July 2021 saw Rwanda handing over to Burundi 19 Burundian combatants who illegally crossed from Burundi to Rwanda on September 29, 2020. The combatants were apprehended while crossing into Rwanda along a border stretch in Nyungwe forest, in Nyaruguru District. Rwandan authorities informed the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM) before taking them into custody.

Their handover to Burundi was facilitated by EJVM and witnessed by the UN Special Envoy to Great Lakes Region on July 30, 2021, at Nemba Border Post.

Rwanda also provided Ndayishimiye with intelligence of a coup plot being planned by former Burundian Prime Minister Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, who wanted the Burundian President killed. The intelligence was verified by Burundians authorities, leading to Bunyoni’s arrest, trial and later being sentenced to life in prison.

Different Rwandan officials have been traveling to Burundi despite the fact that bilateral relations were slow. In February 2023, Rwandan President Paul Kagame was welcomed in Burundi where he attended an extraordinary EAC summit on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) crisis.

Earlier, in July 2021, Rwanda’s Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente visited Bujumbura for the Independence Day celebrations. This was the first time a high profile official from Rwanda travelled to Burundi since the political crisis erupted there in 2015.

In October 2023, Rwanda’s First Lady Jeannette Kagame participated in a high-level forum of Women Leaders in Bujumbura, at the invitation of Burundi’s First Lady Angeline Ndayishimiye.

Rwanda, a good neighbor, paid Burundi’s contribution to the East African Community estimated to $1 million in 2008, when the southern neighbour was heavily affected by an economic crisis.

Having worked so hard to transform the country after suffering from the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the Rwandan government only yearns for sustainable peace and security in the region so that it can consolidate its development gains, and make faster progress.

Rwanda can never gain from an insecure Burundi.

Insecurity in the region has affected Rwanda in various ways.

Burundian and Congolese refugees have been fleeing to Rwanda, burdening the country which has its own problems to deal with. But for humanitarian reasons, in Rwanda, all the refugees are welcomed and treated as other citizens are treated. 

“All the borders are closed. We don't need Rwandans here and even those who were on our territory, we arrested them and chased them from Burundian territory,” Burundi’s Interior Minister Martin Niteretse said on January 11.

Burundi’s allegations of Kigali backing RED-Tabara rebels have one objective; to divert the nation’s public from the chaos the Burundian army is engaged in in eastern DRC where it is fighting alongside the Congolese army coalition, against M23 rebels.