Paul Kagame, commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front for most of the Civil War
Rwanda (AFP) Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused Burundi’s leaders of carrying out “massacres” on their people in his most critical speech yet of the crisis in the troubled neighbouring state.
“People die every day, corpses litter the streets... How can the leaders allow their population to be massacred from morning to night?” Kagame said, speaking in Kinyarwanda on Friday, in a speech heard by AFP on Sunday. Relations between Rwanda and Burundi are tense, with Bujumbura accusing Kigali of backing those who oppose President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial third term.
Kagame, speaking in Kigali during an awards ceremony, gave the speech before the end of a Burundi government deadline for civilians to surrender weapons, which has prompted international fears it will trigger further violence.
Burundi has been rocked by violence since April, raising fears it could slide back into conflict after its 1993-2006 civil war, when some 300,000 people died as rebels from the majority Hutu people clashed with an army dominated by the minority Tutsis.
The people of Rwanda and Burundi have close ties, and have taken turns sheltering in their neighbour when trouble has spiked, including during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, when at least 800,000 mainly Tutsi people were killed by extremist Hutu militias.
Kagame said the violence in Burundi reminded him “a little” of the horrors of 1994.
“They (Burundi) should learn from what happened here,” Kagame said.added.
No one has claimed the attack, but the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents having claimed previous killings.
The Shebab is fighting to overthrow Somalia’s Western-backed government, which is propped up and protected by the 22,000-strong African Union force (AMISOM).
/The Citizen
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