The war against the rebels of the RED-Tabara movement in the highlands of South Kivu having become more complicated than expected, the Burundian government decides to deploy a ‘special force’ to support the contingent already present on the ground. But the platoon sent by Gitega was intercepted by the rebels at the Rusizi River, one of the borders between Burundi and the DRC. The damage was enormous. (Le Mandat)
It is Monday, 7 February 2022. At around 11pm, twenty soldiers first to secure the crossing, then another twenty. All of them have just crossed the Rusizi River after the final preparations at the military camp in Cibitoke, according to our sources. The second group is composed of soldiers who are very loyal to the CNDD-FDD. Ready to sacrifice themselves for the presidential party, explain our sources. They are part of what some soldiers call “special force”. “Unlike other soldiers who come here without knowing exactly what to expect, the members of the special force are aware of every detail of their mission,” says a soldier at the Cibitoke camp. According to him, most of the soldiers are informed that they are going to cross the Congolese soil after having received the order to detach the small Burundian flags from their battle dress. “There are others who are deployed in the DRC with exercise uniforms”.
“Some members of the special force are selected from the different military camps in the country. Some of them were in the Congo, very young at the time, in the ranks of the FDD still in the maquis”.
The platoon was ambushed?
“Our superiors were informed of their night-time crossing of the Rusizi and instructed us to prevent them from advancing,” says a RED-Tabara fighter who claims to have participated in the operation. “We were waiting for them near the Rusizi and our mission was to target these members of the Burundian army’s special force. After the fighting, this rebel claims that more than 10 soldiers lost their lives on the Burundian army’s special force side. “We caught them as they were getting ready to start a long journey to the highlands. I think they lost 15 men on the spot and we learned that three others drowned in the Rusizi. On our side, a friend was killed by bullets from the soldiers who were providing cover for the special force. There were exchanges of fire before we decided to withdraw,” explains this rebel. “I’ve been here for about ten years. I think I know the terrain better than any of the Burundian soldiers,” boasts the rebel, who also tells us that the special force soldiers cut the engine of their pirogue in the middle of the Rusizi River so as not to make noise. They then continued rowing to the banks, he tries to convince us.
Some inhabitants of the Rusizi plain confirm the fighting
“We heard a big explosion on Monday night. This was followed by several shootings. We learned the next day that there had been clashes near the river,” says a resident of the plain. A member of Congolese civil society claims to have seen eight bodies of Burundian soldiers in the morning, the day after the clashes. “The soldiers guarding these bodies prevented people from approaching the banks of the Rusizi that day. It was Tuesday. According to him, it was the fishermen and farmers of the plain who helped the military to evacuate the bodies a few hours later. Our source in the Cibitoke military camp also confirms that the members of the special force died in an attack all along the Rusizi River. “We heard that the soldiers who had crossed the Rusizi on Monday evening were attacked on the way and that most of them, especially the members of the special force, could not survive. We also learned that the rebels fled to the mountains after the attack. This source in the Cibitoke camp says that some soldiers are somehow resisting the order to go to Congo. “In January, there were two soldiers who shot themselves in the feet and avoided this Congo battlefield in this way. They explained that it was an accident, but this is often our way of refusing to go into battle.
The military and the imbonerakure return to Burundi
The fighting, which has lasted for about two months mainly in the highlands of South Kivu between the Burundian army and the Resistance Movement for the Rule of Law (RED-Tabara), which claims responsibility for attacks inside the country, has become increasingly complicated for the Burundian government. The deployment of thousands of men in the Democratic Republic of Congo since last December, which has not yielded the expected results, was one of the final strategies to try to put an end once and for all to those Burundians who have decided to take up arms against the regime in place. But, according to our sources, some of the information provided to the Burundian government to decide to deploy more than two thousand men on Congolese territory was biased.
The recent ambush targeting the special force on the Rusizi River would have precipitated the decision to repatriate the soldiers and imbonerakure to Burundi. Following this ambush, some military chiefs would have asked the army staff to think again about a new strategy to fight the RED-Tabara movement, according to our sources.
According to our sources in the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than half of the soldiers and imbonerakure, deployed since December, have already left Congolese soil. This repatriation of forces to their country of origin has been taking place in groups since last week, according to our sources.
The rebel movement RED-Tabara, which has been the main communicator since the beginning of the fighting that has claimed hundreds of Burundian and Congolese lives since January, has been very quiet in recent days. His spokesman Patrick Nahimana told us that he was very busy at the moment but that he would speak in the coming days.
We also contacted the Burundian army spokesman, Colonel Floribert Biyereke. We first asked him why the Burundian military was leaving Congolese soil. Floribert Biyereke denied the presence of the Burundian army in the DRC. “They are coming back from Congo? Who sent them there? No, that’s not true”, the Burundian National Defense Force spokesman Floribert Biyereke told us before hanging up. We did not have the opportunity to ask him about the battle early last week on the banks of the Rusizi.
