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Context

A general staff including the senior officers of the Burundian army and of the FDD of Nkurunziza has been established in partial fulfillment of the power-sharing agreements and the forces often cooperate on the ground. But these arrangements, including responsibility for operational command, remain fluid and ambiguous. The day after the joint general staff was set up, Minister of Defense Major General Vincent Niyungeko stated that it “did not replace the already existing general staff,” meaning that of the Burundian army. The ambiguity in the command structure reduces prospects for establishing accountability for the crimes against civilians just at a time when the number of forces in the area has increased considerably.

The agreements between the government and the FDD, like the earlier accords between the government and smaller rebel movements, provided for the cantonment and eventual demobilization and disarmament of combat forces, but the parties have not adhered to the schedules for these processes. In the meantime the FDD has moved ahead on the ground, installing its forces at places of its own choosing instead of at agreed-upon sites. With no legal basis for claiming authority, it has nonetheless begun administering local civilians in several parts of the country.

As the CNDD-FDD has shown its strength on the ground, it has attracted supporters from other political movements: it began April with fifteen deputies in the Transitional National Assembly but ended the month with more than fifty. Most of its new adherents were deserters from FRODEBU (Front for Democracy in Burundi, a party that encompasses many of the majority Hutu).  This once clearly preeminent Hutu-led political force, the original major partner in the coalition government with the Tutsi-dominated UPRONA (the National Unity and Progress party) is close to losing the distinction of being the largest Hutu-led party in the assembly. In a first demonstration of their newfound strength in the legislature, CNDD-FDD representatives expressed dissatisfaction with the distribution of power in the assembly and announced a boycott of plenary legislative meetings. Ten days later the CNDD-FDD withdrew from the government, saying it had received too few administrative posts. While thus pushing forward its own political agenda, the CNDD-FDD professed willingness to continue collaboration with the Burundian army on military matters.³ 

Although the various accords prohibited recruiting new forces, the FDD and other rebel movements continue to recruit combatants, children as well as adults.

Both Burundian leaders and international actors, intent on pushing along a halting peace process, say little about the ongoing military activities, recruitment, and violations of international humanitarian law. International leaders have proved largely unable to counter the delaying tactics used by the Burundian actors, some of whom seem to prefer continuing low-scale war to a final peace. 

The people of Bujumbura rural, site of the continuing combat, feel abandoned, held hostage by all sides as attempts to bring peace stumble forward. As one said, “The hardest, the saddest, is the silence that surrounds what is happening in our region.”⁴