Rebel Attack In Western Burundi Claims 20 Lives, Including 19 Civilians, In Tragic Incident Near Border With DRC

In a tragic incident in western Burundi, twenty people, including 19 civilians, lost their lives in an attack announced by the government on Saturday. The RED-Tabara rebel group claimed responsibility for the assault and asserted that they had killed ten members of the security forces in the same incident.

The attack took place on Friday evening in the locality of Vugizo, approximately twenty kilometers from the economic capital Bujumbura, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the RED-Tabara movement’s rear base is situated.

According to the government’s statement, the “cowardly attack” intentionally targeted civilians, resulting in a total of 20 casualties.

The victims included 12 children, five of whom were under the age of five, three pregnant women, and five men, including a police officer who had intervened to rescue civilians. Nine others were injured and hospitalized, prompting the government to condemn the act as a “despicable and barbaric terrorist act.”

The RED-Tabara group claimed responsibility, stating that its “fighters based in Burundi attacked the Vugizo border post.” They asserted that “9 soldiers and 1 policeman were killed” in a message on the platform “X” (formerly Twitter).

Military and security sources confirmed that the attack targeted a military position, and civilians caught in the crossfire lost their lives, while the attackers retreated into the DRC.

This marks the second action by the rebels on Burundian soil in less than two weeks. The RED-Tabara movement had not been active in the country since attacks in September 2021. On December 11, clashes were reported with soldiers in north-western Burundi.

The rebels announced their intention to continue operations throughout the country. Previously, their activities were concentrated in the DRC’s South Kivu province, prompting Burundian forces to be deployed to pursue them.

Allegations of secret deployments of Burundian soldiers and militiamen to the eastern DRC were made in a report by the NGO Initiative pour les droits humains au Burundi (IDHB) in July.

A thousand soldiers were officially deployed to North Kivu as part of an East African Community (EAC) force from November 2022, withdrawing on December 11 after the mission was not renewed. The RED-Tabara, formed in 2011, is accused of responsibility for numerous deadly attacks and ambushes in Burundi since 2015.