Regional

Burundi hurriedly deploys troops as more die on eastern DRC battlefield

2024-02-06 05:19:00

For the past few months Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have had a thriving relationship. Their relations have mostly been built on the military bilateral agreement where the Burundian army, Force de Défense Nationale du Burundi (FDNB), was deployed to eastern DRC to fight the M23, alongside the Congolese army, FARDC.

Under the bilateral agreement, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, agreed to deploy more than 6,000 soldiers to eastern DRC, a decision that was much welcomed by his Congolese counterpart President Felix Tshisekedi.

The Burundian troops joined the Congolese army’s coalition of Wazalendo and numerous other armed militias, Eastern European mercenaries, and the Rwandan genocidal group, FDLR, which was founded by the remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

According to local sources, Burundi has deployed a new battalion of more than 600 soldiers, to replace a battalion which was defeated badly, with half of its soldiers either dead or seriously wounded.

Regional security analysts predicted that the involvement of Burundi in eastern DRC was a recipe for disaster. It is now happening.

Before the deployment, sources from Kinshasa and Gitega, confirmed that the two heads of state had a row over the bilateral agreement. The deployment was halted by Burundian authorities because of a disagreement between the two head of states, over the continued death and resources of the soldiers.

Ndayishimiye was given statistics of the hundreds of Burundian soldiers who died during the escalated fighting with the M23 rebels. The Burundian leader was told that his soldiers are always put on the frontline, given poor material, and are abandoned by the FARDC whenever fighting gets intense.

It was also reported that some Wazalendo, have killed Burundian officers during the fights. Maj Adrien Sindayihebura, Maj Onesphore Ndayiragije, and Maj Pascal Ngendakumana, were among those killed by the Wazalendo, who in return fled when the M23 arrived.

Ndayishimiye was puzzled as to why he should deploy more of his soldiers to die in DRC. Gitega is reportedly frustrated over the fact that the same army they went to help is the one that is abandoning them and betraying them at the battlefield.

Several reports have indicated that the Burundian army has suffered heavy casualties, while grieving Burundian families, and the opposition, are against any more deployment of FDNB soldiers to DRC.

The bilateral agreement entailed that Kinshasa pays $5,000, monthly, for each Burundian soldier who is fighting alongside their national army against M23 rebels. In addition to this, the Congolese government is supposed to pay an additional unspecified amount for soldiers who died in the war and the ones who are wounded.

With a constantly rising number of the dead, and wounded, Kinshasa is finding it hard to compensate Gitega.

The general view, presently, is that Burundi betrayed the EAC efforts to restore peace in DRC through political solution, by opting to collaborate with Kinshasa to sow more chaos in DRC.

It is clear that Tshisekedi does not want peace in DRC, and Ndayishimiye is only fulfilling his wishes, at the cost of his own compatriots.

It remains unclear whether Ndayishimiye will continue to send more troops to DRC to die for no justifiable cause.