Escalating DRC fighting can spark regional war, warns Burundi

Burundi’s president has warned the escalating conflict in eastern DR Congo could spark a regional war. The Rwanda-backed M23 group has wrested control of Goma, the main city in eastern Democrati...

Published 1 Feb 2025

Members of the M23 armed group walk on a street as they leave to carry out a patrol from their position in Goma on January 29, 2025. Rwanda-backed fighters controlled almost all of the DR Congo city of Goma on January 29, 2025 where residents were re-emerging after days of deadly fighting and Angola urged leaders of both countries to urgently hold peace talks. After intense fighting that saw the M23 armed group and Rwandan troops seize the city's airport and key sites, calm returned to the mineral trading hub. (Photo by AFP)

700 people killed in DR Congo city of Goma since Sunday – UN — Members of the M23 armed group walk on a street as they leave to carry out a patrol from their position in Goma on January 29, 2025. Rwanda-backed fighters controlled almost all of the DR Congo city of Goma on January 29, 2025 where residents were re-emerging after days of deadly fighting and Angola urged leaders of both countries to urgently hold peace talks. After intense fighting that saw the M23 armed group and Rwandan troops seize the city’s airport and key sites, calm returned to the mineral trading hub. (Photo by AFP)

Burundi’s president has warned the escalating conflict in eastern DR Congo could spark a regional war.

The Rwanda-backed M23 group has wrested control of Goma, the main city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and is pushing southwards.

The offensive is the latest to scar a region where an estimated six million people have died over three decades due to conflict.

“If Eastern Congo does not have peace, the region has no peace,” President Evariste Ndayishimiye warned in remarks posted on social media Saturday.

“If it continues like this, war risks becoming widespread in the region,” he said, adding: “If Rwanda continues to make conquests… I know that war will even arrive in Burundi”.

His remarks came as the M23 pushed south, towards the city of Kavumu in South Kivu.

The city has a strategic military airfield and is where the Congolese army has laid down its defensive line just 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the South Kivu capital Bukavu.

Burundi had deployed troops in the east of the DR Congo as part of the East African Community force supporting the Congolese military.

All but the Burundian contingents of the force were later accused by the DRC and locals of colluding with forces opposed to Kinshasa.