Nairobi (AFP) – Burundi has "accelerated" the withdrawal of some troops from DR Congo, a senior military source told AFP Thursday, as the UN warned the small Great Lakes nation was seeing its biggest influx of refugees from its conflict-riven neighbour in 25 years.
"Since yesterday, the army has accelerated the extraction of our soldiers deployed on the Rusizi plain in the DRC," a senior army officer told AFP on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The officer did not specify how many troops were being withdrawn, but did note that one battalion had been sent to "secure the withdrawal of our soldiers" from an area in South Kivu.
Since October 2023, Burundi has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to help the Congolese army against the M23 and other armed groups.
However, the officer said the soldiers in the DRC were now facing "serious" re-supply issues, blaming the "disorganised" Congolese forces.
Burundian soldiers were "at a total loss", he said, adding: "they have no more ammunition, no more food and have to make do."
Earlier in the week reports that some Burundian troops were staging a "tactical withdrawal" were denied by the army.
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Interior Minister Martin Niteretse said the government intended to relocate the refugees to eastern Burundi, "in order to guarantee their safety". He added they would be granted refugee status.
Prior to the recent escalation in the conflict, the UNHCR said that Burundi was already hosting roughly 90,000 people -- mainly Congolese -- who had fled previous bouts of violence in the mineral-rich but conflict-stricken eastern DRC.
Some 500 Congolese soldiers and police also arrived in the border town of Gatumba on Wednesday, witnesses and a security source said.
The security source said they were disarmed and searched.
Bintou Keita, head of the UN's DRC peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO), expressed concern to the UN Security Council over M23's advance, which she said Wednesday is approaching the "the junction of the three borders between the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi."
Huang Xia, the UN Secretary-General's special envoy for the Great Lakes region, told the Security Council on Wednesday that M23 and its allies were continuing their advance towards "other strategic areas" in North and South Kivu, warning: "The risk of a regional conflagration is more real than ever."