Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye recently hosted the “5th Continental Dialogue on Youth, Peace and Security and Women, Peace and Security in Africa” in Bujumbura. What was supposed to be an African Union backed event, however, quickly morphed into something far more sinister: a platform to promote genocide ideology and rally support for the FDLR, a UN-sanctioned terrorist group.
This is not the first time Ndayishimiye has used regional forums to advance this agenda. At a previous summit in Kinshasa, he openly called on African youth to “liberate Rwanda,” a thinly veiled endorsement of violent action against a sovereign state. Now, with over 20,000 Burundian troops deployed in eastern Congo alongside the Congolese army and FDLR forces, his intentions are becoming clearer. Despite suffering heavy losses in a disastrous campaign to exterminate Tutsi communities in North and South Kivu, Ndayishimiye appears to be doubling down.
Observers were quick to point out the irony. At a time when Burundian youth are among the most disenfranchised in the world, trafficked to Middle Eastern countries as cheap labour, reduced to begging across the region, or sold as mercenaries to Tshisekedi’s war machine, the dictator chooses to host a youth summit. “This is not about peace,” said a university lecturer. “This summit is hiding something sinister.”
The mood in Bujumbura confirmed those suspicions. “There is no fuel, no foreign currency, no electricity, and no water, yet Ndayishimiye gathers Africa to talk about Rwanda,” a forum attendee remarked. “And worse, we are surrounded by FDLR and Tshisekedi operatives pushing their silly Bantu vs Nilotiques theories.”
Critics say the regime weaponised both the AU’s rotating chairmanship and the summit’s agenda, handpicking delegates hostile to Rwanda while flying in FDLR representatives under the cover of a continental dialogue. A hotel owner in Bujumbura noted the anomaly: “There are two summits in this city. Suddenly, hotels and bars are full of Kinyarwanda-speaking young men visibly based in Europe. They keep asking for prices in euros.”
Fortunately for the rest of the region, Ndayishimiye and his allies have a habit of documenting their misadventures online. It will not be long before the true nature of the Bujumbura summit is laid bare for all to see.
ellenkampire