Burundi president warns Rwanda against attacking

Ndayishimiye, who has repeatedly said the DRC conflict risks sparking a regional war, voiced a stark warning in an address to residents near the Rwandan border.

"The one that is going to attack us, we will ourselves attack," he said in comments recorded on Tuesday in the border town of Bugabira, branding Rwanda a "bad neighbour".

"Start to prepare yourselves and do not be afraid," he said.

He had earlier alleged that Kigali was "planning something against Burundi", branding Rwanda an "enemy".

Ethnic tensions are raw in Burundi, home to an 85-percent Hutu majority and a Tutsi minority accounting for 14 percent of the population.

The country has seen numerous ethnic massacres since independence in 1962 and a 1993-2006 civil war that killed up to 300,000 people, according to human rights groups.

In neighbouring DR Congo, an advance in recent weeks by the Rwanda-backed M23 group has left thousands dead, according to the United Nations.

Rwanda has not admitted backing M23 but has accused extremist Hutu groups in DR Congo of threatening its security.

Burundi's army meanwhile has sent thousands of troops to help the Congolese army since October 2023, dispatching an extra battalion just last week.

Rising tensions in Burundi prompted a prominent archbishop to speak out on Monday.

"We cannot stand by in silence while this war awakes the wounds of ethnic divisions," said Bonaventure Nahimana, bishop of Muyinga, in comments broadcast on local radio.

Several political officials in Burundi's Hutu leadership, who asked not to be named, told AFP the country's leaders were increasingly anxious about the conflict and the threat has been widely discussed on social media.