President Paul Kagame has said that Rwanda has no role in the problems in its relations with Burundi, stressing that it was Burundi that took the decision to close the land border.
Burundi closed its borders with Rwanda in January 2024, accusing it of supporting the armed group RED Tabara.
It has dismissed this accusation, stating that it is a way to evade its responsibility to resolve internal conflicts in the country.
Since then, there have been talks to revive relations, but they have not yielded any results.
In an interview with journalists on Thursday, November 27, 2025, President Paul Kagame was asked where the bilateral relations stand today, after a few days ago, Burundian refugees who were in Rwanda returned home, and Burundian soldiers attended a recent meeting in Kigali of the commanders of the land forces.
President Kagame said that nothing has changed in the relationship between the two countries because the borders are still closed.
He said, “The borders are still the same as they were, but we, first of all, and the closure of those borders, Rwanda has no role in it at all. It is the Burundians who chose to close the borders and we tell them that wherever they want to open them, we have never closed them.”
He continued by saying that despite this, the citizens of the two countries can travel to each other, and that there are sometimes talks about establishing relations.
He said, “There are people from Burundi who come here, there are people who I hear go from here to Burundi, there are people who go with RwandAir, I don’t know if they go there, but in the meantime, in this search, how can we get along better than this, it is better, people talk to each other, we have never wanted to have neighbors who don’t get along well, but it happens, it still happens now, but you should follow it carefully, it has never happened to us, that is why we go and come back, people come wherever they want, and go wherever they want.”
President Kagame said that so far in the relations between Rwanda and Burundi, “there is nothing new”.
Regarding the recently returned refugees, President Kagame said that they have the right to do so as long as they wish.
On November 25, 2025, 115 Burundian refugees, mostly those who had been living in Mahama Camp in Kirehe District since 2015, returned home through the Nemba Border in Bugesera District.
Burundi’s decision to close the borders came after President Ndayishimiye hinted in his 2023 state of the nation address that he might close the borders between his country and Rwanda after accusing it of supporting the RED Tabara movement that is fighting his government.
Rwanda has dismissed these accusations, which it has shown to be baseless, given that even the areas through which RED Tabara has attacked Burundi have nothing to do with Rwanda.
After closing the border, Ndayishimiye has been seen in various statements accusing Rwanda of wanting to attack their country, but has denied them, showing that they are baseless.
