Rwanda, Burundi row hurting us: EAC chief

Kigali. Strained relations between Burundi and Rwanda continue to hurt some operations of the East African Community (EAC), including failure by officials of either side to attend a regional meeting on another state.

Diplomatic sources say although the EAC Council of Ministers--the policy organ of the Community--intervened recently by directing that meetings continue to be held on rotational basis in different capitals as usual, the situation has not been back to normal.

The EAC secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko acknowledged during his visit to the Rwanda capital early this week that when there are meetings of the Community in Kigali, delegates from Burundi do not attend and vice versa.

The Community boss was quoted by the Rwanda media yesterday, saying that for the last one year the Council of Ministers has been trying to address the issue but without much success.

It emerged, however, during talks between Ambassador Mfumukeko and the Rwanda minister responsible for EAC Affairs, Mr Francois Kanimba, that there had been some improvement over the relations between the two neighbouring states and that the opportunity should be used to fully normalise the relations.

The minister said there was a time government officials in his country and Rwandans in general declined to travel to Burundi for security reasons and vice versa, though he has seen significant improvement in recent months.

Relations between the two countries took a nose dive from the middle of 2015 at the height of violent protests in the Burundi capital over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s announcement to seek extension of tenure for the third term. He later won the disputed polls which were boycotted by some opposition parties.

Bujumbura later accused the Kigali government of supporting the anti-government groups who fled the country after April 26th, 2015 and rebels it accused of being the masterminds of the failed coup attempt in May that year in which President Nkurunziza narrowly survived.

Rwanda, which currently hosts over 150,000 refugees who fled violence in Burundi, has repeatedly denied the allegations.