The FDNB in Minembwe: A military mission of the EAC which strikes the last hopes of survival of the Banyanmulenge.

The FDNB in Minembwe: A military mission of the EAC which strikes the last hopes of survival of the Banyanmulenge.

This is another bad news for the Banyamulenge…
In a press release made public on the morning of January 2, 2023, the Civil Society, Minembwe cell is concerned about the presence, in Minembwe, of the National Defense Forces of Burundi (FDNB) mixed with the FARDC. They are, for the most part, in military fatigues stamped with the national effigy, a form of balaclava to hide their identity. They have thus changed their dress, but not their language (Kirundi) which makes them take their hand in the jam jar.

This presence, under the label of the EAC of the Burundian forces alongside the men of Col. Rugabisha – regularly overtaken by proven accusations of alliance with MAI-MAI and Red-Tabara – stimulates mistrust and questions the nature and content of the FDNB’s mission in the Hauts-Plateaux. The now mixing of these allied forces confirms the dangerousness of this mission that Gen. Yav, of sad memory at the controls of the 3rd Defense Zone wanted, in his time, special and large-scale.

Indeed, it has escaped no one that, from the Ruzizi plain (border with Burundi) to Minembwe (Fizi), via Bijombo (Uvira) and Mikalati (Mwenga), these Burundian forces of the EAC have traveled more than 250 km, criss-crossing the areas where dozens of local and foreign armed groups abound, without flinching, their fingers far, very far from the trigger. Worse, they crossed the MASANGO area occupied by the MAI-MAI Ilunga group where the Red-Tabara were housed and had erected their headquarters before it was dismantled on January 26, 2021. Which, on the one hand, part, confirms the public admission of the MAI-MAI (then weakened) who boasted of counting on “their Bantu brothers” of the Burundian army to reinvigorate themselves and achieve victory; a victory which must materialize with the disappearance of the last Munyamulenge from the high and medium plateaus of the South, South Kivu. On the other hand, it contradicts the naive beliefs that attributed to the FDNB the intention to stay away from an ethnically connotated conflict and to evade any xenophobic influence.

For this last hypothesis supported by the Banyamulenge, it was unthinkable and out of the question that the MAI-MAI could benefit from the support of the FDNB, even indirectly, by providing support to the 12th rapid reaction brigade (FARDC) which was built a bad reputation by its collusion with the MAI-MAI armed groups, and even with the Burundian rebels of Red-Tabara. However, and as strange as it may appear, the surprise effect was to the advantage of the ideological anti-Tutsi Banyamulenge militia. Therefore, it will no longer be a misconduct for the FDNB.

Indeed, if the Banyamulenge know they are persecuted by the MAI-MAI (and allies) whose supply of arms and ammunition by the 12th rapid reaction brigade of the FARDC is only an open secret, the arrival of the FDNB to lend a hand -strong to this coalition suggests that the EAC in general and the FDNB in particular have fallen into the trap of conspiring against this Tutsi minority who has lived as a pariah for more than decades. It is indeed the blind and hateful struggle of Bitakwira against the latter which acquires a new strong armed wing.

It is indeed a cynical trickery for the FDNB to claim to want to attack armed groups (including the Burundians of Red-Tabara), and to work in collusion with its main ally (MAI-MAI), to hunt down Twirwaneho who instead fights against this fatal alliance. How do the FDNB intend to defend this unbearable paradox pushed to the point of absurdity?

The EAC/FDNB coin will therefore have rotated for a long time over the past few months, and we did not know which side it was going to fall on. But now, what is certain is that one side of the coin is the 12th rapid reaction brigade and the other, the MAI-MAI militia!

The Banyamulenge are therefore warned and await with anguish the sequel which only augurs gloomy prospects for their security. It is therefore a safe bet that the next few days will see Burundian weapons spitting fire against the peaceful Banyamulenge civilians, thus shattering their already fragile tranquility.

The EAC, which is not made only to observe the damage, should not give up taking its responsibilities in the face of the growing threat of genocide hanging over this Tutsi community of Minembwe.

Case to follow!

01/02/2023
Mukulu The Patriot