The political situation in Burundi is very alarming, but it is up to Burundians to come up with a solution to the impasse.

That was the view of Rwanda and Belgium’s foreign affairs ministers after meeting in Kigali yesterday.

Louise Mushikiwabo and her Belgian counterpart, Didier Reynders, said any outside support in the Burundi peace process would only be supplementary.

"It is neither Belgium nor Rwanda that will address the problems in Burundi, DR Congo, or elsewhere,” Mushikiwabo said during a news conference after their meeting.

"For the case of Rwanda, we are an immediate neighbour and are interested in the stability of the region and this means that we are ready to lend a hand if it is necessary,” she added.

Reynders, who also doubles as the Belgian deputy prime minister, said his country was also preoccupied with the issue of Burundian refugees.

"When we work together for a political solution in Burundi, it is because we think that the best solution is that the Burundi refugees would be able to return home to Burundi. That will be the best response in terms of the crisis,” he said.

Reynders added that when he returns to Brussels, he will hold various meetings with opposition groups from the DR Congo and Burundi as well as former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa, the facilitator of the inter-Burundi dialogue, all aimed at finding solutions to the simmering conflicts in the two countries.

More than 265,000 Burundians have fled the country into the DR Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and as far away as Zambia due to the violence that started there early last year.

Reynders’ last visit to Rwanda was in January last year, when he was accompanied by his Development Cooperation counterpart, Alexander De Croo.

During the visit, De Croo told reporters that relations between the two countries were excellent, and that Rwanda was the third biggest country in Belgium’s development cooperation (after DR Congo and Burundi) framework.

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