Sud-Kivu : de nouvelles pertes présumées de l’armée burundaise relancent les interrogations sur son engagement en RDC

Fizi, July 9, 2026 — As fierce fighting reignites across the high plateaus of Sud-Kivu, local accounts suggest drone strikes have targeted Burundian National Defense Force (FDNB) reinforcements within Fizi territory. While these reports remain officially unconfirmed, they emerge amidst recent military setbacks for the FARDC, FDNB, and Wazalendo militias against Twirwaneho combatants, who are reportedly allied with the AFC/M23 coalition. These developments are once again bringing into sharp focus the human cost of Burundi’s military involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over 29,000 soldiers were deployed between August 2022 and December 2025.

In Fizi territory, Sud-Kivu, local sources indicate that three vehicles, transporting munitions and Burundian military personnel, were reportedly hit by drone attacks in Mulima during the past week.

These sources further suggest that several soldiers were killed, including a colonel and a major from the Burundian National Defense Force (FDNB). However, no official casualty figures have been released, and these details could not be independently verified at the time of publication.

The same local accounts also claim that a vessel transporting soldiers was shelled on the waters of Lake Tanganyika, off the Ubwari peninsula, while it was en route to deliver reinforcements to the Baraka, Fizi, and Minembwe highland sectors.

These reinforcements were reportedly intended to bolster the positions of the FARDC, FDNB, and Wazalendo militias following the loss of several key locations, including Point Zéro, Kakenge, Rubemba, Mikenge, and Kalongi. These losses are attributed by the sources to Twirwaneho fighters, who are said to be allied with the AFC/M23.

Withdrawal on the battlefield

Local sources further report that FARDC and FDNB soldiers have withdrawn from the Rugezi, Kakenge, and Point Zéro sectors towards Mukera, while others have moved in the direction of Misisi, heading towards Tanganyika province in southeastern DRC.

After several days of intense fighting, a relative calm has reportedly settled over the Minembwe region. Displaced residents have begun to return to their villages. On social media platforms, numerous members of the Banyamulenge community have circulated images, which they present as evidence of life gradually resuming in certain areas now under the control of Twirwaneho/AFC-M23. Independent verification of these images was not possible.

A costly conflict for the FDNB

The precise number of Burundian soldiers killed in the past week’s clashes remains unknown. Nevertheless, these reports serve as a stark reminder of the losses already sustained by the FDNB since its deployment in eastern DRC.

Prior to the capture of Goma, the provincial capital of Nord-Kivu, several Burundian soldiers had lost their lives, including a major, who was then the highest-ranking Burundian officer killed in this theater of operations.

In December 2025, during confrontations in the Rusizi plain, Sud-Kivu, the FDNB suffered the loss of a colonel, marking the highest-ranking Burundian officer to fall in combat since the military intervention in Congo began.

Following the withdrawal of the AFC/M23 from Uvira and the Rusizi plain, a move partly influenced by American diplomatic pressure, Burundian authorities undertook new redeployments to reinforce units remaining on the front lines.

Since last February, the FDNB, FARDC, and Wazalendo militias had received substantial human and material reinforcements, enabling them to contain offensives by Twirwaneho and the AFC/M23 for several months. However, the events reported this week could signal a renewed shift in the balance of power in this part of Sud-Kivu.

Over 29,000 soldiers deployed

According to an internal report from the Congolese Ministry of Interior and Security, over 29,000 Burundian military personnel were deployed to eastern DRC between August 2022 and December 2025, operating under a military agreement forged between Kinshasa and Gitega.

Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye has repeatedly defended this intervention. He notably stated that it was “normal” for Burundian soldiers to lose their lives in the DRC, given their chosen profession. He also explained that Burundi was applying a Kirundi proverb that encourages helping a neighbor extinguish a house fire before it spreads to one’s own home.

A regional conflict with multiple players

The Burundian army is engaged alongside the FARDC and Wazalendo militias in combat against the AFC/M23. Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of backing this politico-military coalition, an allegation Kigali denies. However, a United Nations expert report released in December 2025 detailed the presence of 5,000 to 7,000 Rwandan military personnel operating alongside the AFC/M23.

Rwanda, in turn, accuses the DRC and Burundi of collaborating with the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu armed group whose members are implicated in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis. Congolese authorities reject this accusation, while Gitega contends that Kigali uses the FDLR issue to justify its involvement in eastern DRC.

As of publication, neither the FARDC, the FDNB, nor AFC/M23 officials had issued statements regarding the reports of drone strikes against Burundian reinforcements in Fizi territory.

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Photo : Burial of Major Ernest Gashirahamwe, the first high-ranking FDNB officer killed in Nord-Kivu, on November 16, 2023, in Bujumbura.