Members of the APPG visited Burundi and Rwanda to study developments in two countries of vital importance to the overall stability of the region, and to influence and encourage international engagement. The delegation, including MPs Russell Brown, Stephen Crabb, and David Drew, visited both countries and met with Presidents Nkurunziza and Kagame, as well as a wide range of ministers, officials, international organisations, civil society, and members of the public. Both countries call for engagement now – both political and material – to prevent a far more costly slide into instability or under-development in the future.

A full copy of the report in Word format (1.2MB) can be downloaded by clicking here.  A version without graphics (232KB) is available here.

Among the report’s key themes:

• The need to engage: both humanitarian concerns and UK self-interest demand engagement with the region at the highest level. The UK should especially support the Burundian transition at a stage when post-conflict countries often falter, in particular by pressing for a final peace settlement, supporting improvement of the capacity and accountability of the Burundian government, and actively looking for opportunities for development engagement.

• Human rights and political space: Key issues for the UK relationship with both Burundi and Rwanda. The entirely justified scale of engagement must not detract from the UK raising issues of political space and human rights, critical in the longer term.

• Violence against women and vulnerable groups: The need to react to the continued crisis of violence against women in the region, in particular through improvements to the rule of law and targeted aid programmes; also to target support for children and vulnerable groups like the BaTwa.

• The importance of justice: The need for effective transitional justice, in particular to in relation to the Muyinga, Gatumba and Titanic Express killings. In Rwanda the delegation also examined the progress of gacaca.

• Development priorities: job creation is of particular importance given its link to insecurity; as are efforts to improve international coordination of aid and political engagement, particularly in key areas like security sector reform and reform of the judiciary.

• Regional security: The need for the strongest UK engagement in support of regional security: with the Goma accords providing a window of opportunity, the need for all sides to act to resolve the long-standing insecurity in eastern DRC.