Meetings and gestures of appeasement have been succeeding one another at all levels since the October 2020 meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries at the Nemba border post: contacts between the two armies, a visit by the Rwandan prime minister for Burundian independence celebrations and above all, prisoner exchanges.

Initiatives against the rebel groups of both countries

On Friday, July 30, Kigali transferred 19 Burundian fighters identified as Red Tabara arrested in Rwanda in late 2019 and accused of carrying out attacks against civilians in Burundi to Gitega. This initiative was welcomed by President Evariste Ndayishimiye. For its part, the Burundian army conducted operations against the Rwandan FLN rebellion.

This weekend, it was the governors of the two border provinces, the South province in Rwanda and Kayanza province in Burundi, who met: "It would now be in the logic of things that the two presidents meet in the coming months" whispers a diplomatic source.