The Rwanda Defence Force Sunday night repulsed an attack by about a section of FLN militants near the Burundi border, the military has said in a statement.

A section comprises about 15 fighters. 

The army said it killed two of the attackers and seized military equipment, including a submachine gun, seven magazines, a tortoise grenade, an antenna of a Motorola radio and two Burundi National Defence Force army uniforms.

The attackers had reached about 100 metres inside the Rwandan territory, in Rwamisave village, Nyamuzi cell in Bweyeye, RDF said on Monday.

"The enemy assailants retreated back to Burundi across River Ruhwa separating Ruhororo zone in Mabayi commune in Burundi and Bweyeye sector in Rwanda and returned to Kibira Forest where they have bases,” the statement reads in part.

The attack, the Rwandan military said, occurred on Sunday, May 23, between 9:15p.m and 9:35p.m when the militants crossed River Ruhwa along the border with Rwanda’s southern neighbour.

The incident comes at a time when 21 people linked to the FLN militia, including its founders Paul Rusesabagina and Callixte Nsabimana, are on trial in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

Many of the accused have pleaded guilty to a litany of charges including terrorism, murder, arson, kidnapping as well as forming, sponsoring and joining a terrorist organisation.

At least nine civilians lost their lives when FLN militia – an armed wing of Rusesabagina and Nsabimana’s MRCD coalition – attacked Rwandan villages near the Burundi border in 2018 and 2019.