Burundi shuts down Rwanda border, suspends diplomatic ties amid rising tensions

Relations between Burundi and Rwanda have taken another downturn after the former announced on Thursday (18 January) that it had suspended diplomatic ties with its neighbor and unilaterally closed its border.
The move came last week, after the Burundi government accused Rwanda of supporting a Burundian rebel group known as RED-Tabara that is based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an accusation that Kigali denies. Bilateral relations between Burundi and Rwanda have ranged from being frosty for years to being quite friendly, being regularly shaped by the relations between Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. The border between the two nations, which reopened two years ago, has been closed again amid renewed tension, with some analysts now predicting the spat is bound to further escalate.
RED-Tabara has been attacking Burundi whose government designates the rebels as terrorists. The rebel group claimed responsibility for the 22 December attack on a commune near Bujumbura, Burundi’s economic capital, that reportedly claimed lives of scores of civilians, including women and children. The Rwandan government responded by stating that Burundi’s decision was unfortunate and violated the East African Community’s (EAC) principles of regional cooperation. According to Phil Clark, a professor of international politics at SOAS University of London, “the fact that [the border] has been closed again shows that there is an enormous amount of bad blood between the two governments.”