Burundi sends extra battalion to DRC conflict

NAIROBI - Burundi has sent an additional battalion to support the Congolese army against the M23 armed group and Rwandan troops in eastern DR Congo, a security source told AFP on Friday.

The Rwanda-backed M23 has seized vast swathes of eastern DRC and is pressing southwards into South Kivu province, which shares a border with Burundi.

Burundi's army has supplied some 10,000 troops to help the Congolese army since October 2023.

An additional battalion of soldiers was deployed in eastern DRC on Thursday, a senior officer in Burundi's army told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said Burundi now had 16 battalions deployed in South Kivu, most around the town of Bukavu which has an airport that is vital to supplying the Congolese army.

Two other security sources confirmed the deployment but did not provide information about how many troops were in each battalion.

The provincial capital of South Kivu was bracing Friday for an attack by the Rwanda-backed M23, who already seized the city of Goma in neighbouring North Kivu last week.

The rest of the Burundian contingent is deployed further south in DRC, around the towns of Fizi and Uvira, which lies just over the border from Burundi's economic capital Bujumbura.

Their main goal is to "hunt down the rebels of RED-Tabara", a Burundian rebel group based in eastern DRC, the first army source said.

Burundi accuses Rwanda of supporting RED-Tabara which has carried out multiple attacks on Burundian soil.

Rwanda denies supporting RED-Tabara or direct military involvement in eastern DRC.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye said last week that he feared the unrest in DRC could trigger a regional war and that Kigali was "preparing something against Burundi".

Critics of Ndayishimiye's authoritarian government say he is stoking ethnic tensions ahead of legislative elections in June.