Burundi finds itself on the brink once more as South-Kivu-based Burundian armed opposition groups, namely the National Liberation Forces (FNL), Republican Forces of Burundi (FOREBU), and the resistance movement against Burundian law, RED-Tabara, restart their liberation efforts against the Gitega Military Junta led by General Neva. The former FDD warlord, now at the helm, is holding the Burundian populace hostage and they are being pushed to armed struggle as the last resort.
For a start, Burundians have continued to face brutalities, including murder, imprisonment, torture, and enforced disappearances under General Neva’s military junta. Those daring to voice dissent against the CNDD-FDD regime of General Neva face executions. This is not new. The CNDD-FDD is well known for its past atrocities when, during its bush wars, it targeted Tutsis, by stopping buses to segregate and execute them and launching attacks on their villages. The CNDD-FDD’s brutality intensified after incorporating elements from the former HutuPower Tropical Nazi army of Habyarimana (FAR) and the notorious Interahamwe militiamen involved in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
Today, the CNDD-FDD’s paramilitary Imbonerakure militia continues to spread terror in Burundi under General Neva’s directives. The militias execute numerous extrajudicial killings, particularly targeting the Tutsi. The objective is to coerce Burundian Tutsis into leaving the country, paving the way for the establishment of a mono-ethnic Hutu nation. General Neva has extended this ideology beyond Burundi by deploying the regular Burundian army and the Imbonerakure militia to North Kivu to engage in ethnic cleansing against Congolese Tutsi alongside forces from Tshisekedi’s coalition, namely FARDC, FDLR, APCLS, PARECO, NYATURA, CODECO, Maï-Maï and mercenaries contracted by the Bulgarian military firm Agemira.
Indeed, it has come to light that Burundian troops are meeting their demise on the battlegrounds of the DRC while serving as nothing more than mercenaries of General Neva. The true nature of their mission is no longer shrouded in secrecy; actions on the frontlines have proven this: a plot reminiscent of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, albeit on a larger regional scale. General Neva and Tshisekedi are planning a potential genocide targeting the Tutsi populations in Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern Congo. For instance, General Neva explicitly instructed Burundian forces before their deployment in the DRC to eliminate Congolese individuals with a “Tutsis” morphology, equating them with M23 Congolese mutineers and, by extension, Rwandans.
In a nutshell, General Neva seems oblivious to the ticking time bomb beneath him. Burundian soldiers, thrust into the Congo battleground are risking life and limb for a regime they despise—a regime that, for almost two decades, has treated them as nothing more than expendable mercenaries, auctioned off to the highest bidder. The inevitable tipping point approaches, where these soldiers may find themselves compelled to revolt or join the Burundian armed opposition in South Kivu.
Meanwhile, back home, Burundi is struggling with a domestic crisis of epic proportions. Necessities like light are rationed, unemployment among the youth soars to 84%, and shortages of essential commodities such as fuel, sugar, and rice plague the nation. Amidst this economic, social, and security crisis, it’s the oppressed Burundians who need saving and not Rwandans as ironically yapped by General Neva while speaking in Kinshasa this last weekend.
ellenkampire