The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo has requested the UN to seek ways of resolving the Burundi crisis instead of amplifying rumours that Rwanda is training Burundi refugees to fight the Nkurunziza government.
Mushikiwabo has made the call after Reuters quoted a UN report which alleges that Rwanda is training Burundian refugees preparing them to invade and oust Burundi government.
Similar allegations have been made by Burundi’s government.
A political crisis in the country, sparked by President Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term last April, has led thousands to flee.
About 70,000 of the 240,000 Burundians who have left the country since the crisis began are living in Rwanda.
“The unfounded allegations come from the fact that Rwanda has been hosting refugees considered hostile to [the government in Burundi’s capital] Bujumbura,” Mushikiwabo said in a statement emailed to the BBC.
Dismissing this evidence, Ms Mushikiwabo said the crisis in Burundi was of the country’s “own making” and people should focus on that rather than “look for scapegoats”.
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