KIGALI FEBRUARY 12, 2016 (CISA) – Rwanda will relocate Burundian refugees to other countries, Rwandan foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo said today.
Mushikiwabo said that Rwanda would immediately begin working with partners in the international community to relocate refugees from Burundi, Reuters reported.
“For Rwanda, the growing risks to our national security from the Burundian impasse and misunderstandings in our foreign relations are unacceptable,” she added.
A confidential report to the United Nations Security Council accuses Rwanda of recruiting and training Burundian refugees with the goal of ousting Nkurunziza.
In December 2015, Burundi accused Rwanda of supporting a rebel group that was recruiting Burundian refugees on Rwandan soil, but Rwandan President Paul Kagame dismissed the allegations terming them as “childish.”
Burundi and Rwanda have the same ethnic mix, about 85 percent Hutus and 15 percent Tutsis.
The 12-year civil war in Burundi pitted a Tutsi-led army against Hutu rebel groups. Burundi was plunged into turmoil in April 2015 after President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term in office, a move that the opposition and human right groups said was against the constitution.
More than 400 people have been killed since then.
