Why did Burundi's Dynamo Club Pull Out of The Basketball Africa League?

Heading into this year’s Basketball Africa League (BAL), Dynamo Basketball Club was one of the five teams making its debut in the annual pan-African competition. Dynamo made history this past weekend as the first team from Burundi in style, winning their first game 86-73 against South Africa’s Cape Town Tigers in SunBet Arena, Pretoria.

The win was impressive, considering that many didn’t expect much from Dynamo, after squeaking into the competition through two qualification rounds. “I believe our participation in the BAL will be a unique experience to try to surpass ourselves and try to show the world that there is basketball in Burundi,” team manager Yves Nzeyimanatold OkayAfrica just before the competition tipped off.

Aside from their stellar play in the win, it was also noticeable that the front of Dynamo players’ jerseys were partially taped over, concealing the “Visit Rwanda” inscription that’s been on all BAL club jerseys since the competition’s inception. Rwanda is a major sponsor of the BAL, with the BK Arena in Kigali hosting the tournament’s entirety for its first two years and the playoff rounds last year, a run that’s expected to continue till at least 2026. By concealing the inscription, Dynamo violated major tournament guidelines, which has now led to the team’s disqualification from this year’s BAL.

The decision to tape over “Visit Rwanda” was, according to Dynamo players, handed down by Burundi Basketball Federation president, Jean Paul Manirakiza. After being warned of the violation, the players turned out in the same partially taped jerseys against Angola’ Petro De Luanda and Morocco’s FUS Rabat, leading to a forfeiture of both games and an automatic disqualification after. “Under Fiba rules, two forfeitures in the same tournament trigger the club’s automatic withdrawal. This is a very unfortunate situation for the players and fans, and we share the frustrations of everyone involved,” BAL president Amadou Gallo Fallsaid in a statement on Tuesday.

Several players have taken to social media and spoken to the press to voice their disappointment, noting that Dynamo’s exit was a case of political issues mixing with sports. “We know it’s over for us. We’re like a student who has revised his lessons properly but is prevented from taking his exam. We’ve spent almost two months preparing, but now we’re going home by the back door because of people who don't like our sport, and that's a shame,” Dynamo captain Alvin Ninziza told Sports News Africa.

According to reports, Dynamo partly taping their jerseys stems from the volatile relationship between Rwanda and Burundi, neighboring East African countries. Back in December, an armed attack killed 20 people in Gatumba, a village close to Burundi’s border with Congo. RED-Tabara, the Burundian rebel group based in South Kivu, Eastern Congo, claimed responsibility for the attackers, stating that it only killed state security agents, but the government alleges that civilians lost their lives.

RED-Tabara has been in operation for about a decade and has been accused of carrying out attacks in Burundi since 2015. Addressing the country after the December attacks, in a national radio broadcast, President Evariste Ndayishimiye alleged that Rwanda played a role by funding and training the rebels. He claimed RED-Tabara, “are fed, sheltered, hosted and maintained in terms of logistics and financial means by … Rwanda.”

Shortly after the address, Ndayishimiye closed the border between Burundi and Rwanda, resuming the cold relationship between both countries after relations warmed up for a while, after Ndayishimiye came into office.

In 2015, Burundi cut ties with Rwanda after the former accused the latter of backing a coup attempt to forcefully remove former president Pierre Nkurunziza from power. That year, Nkurunziza controversially won a third term in office, despite dozens being killed in deadly protests after he announced that he was running for another term, citing a technicality that he had been elected for his first term by lawmakers. Burundi’s Constitutional Court sided with the former president, leading to a failed coup and an election boycotted by most opposition parties.

In accusing Rwanda of siding with the unsuccessful coup plotters, Burundi closed its borders with the neighboring country. In retaliation, Rwanda expelled Burundian refugees, claiming they were in the country illegally. Burundi’s relationship with its neighbor was emblematic of how it further isolated itself from the rest of the world, staring down international sanctions stemming from Nkurunziza’s re-election and the many allegations of human rights abuses and free speech repression.

After Nkurunziza died allegedly from COVID-19 complications, an irony considering his detractive stance on the pandemic, Ndayishimiye committed to fostering better relations with Rwanda (and the rest of the world). In October 2022, Burundi opened its borders, over a year after Rwanda extradited 19 RED-Tabara suspects wanted by Burundi.

There were some bumps in the process, such as Rwanda refusing to extradite suspects in the failed 2015 coup. However, all seemed to be going fine with the two countries until Ndayishimiye’s accusation and subsequent border closure. According to political observers, DR Congo is at the root of this conflict. The East African country has been fighting M23 rebels for years, counting Burundi as a major ally in combating the insurgent forces. The allyship has also been favorable in Burundi’s fight against RED-Tabara.

Meanwhile, Rwanda has been accused of funding and training M23, an allegation it has denied ina statement but allegedly not in action. With renewed fighting for about a month, Rwanda’s role in M23 has come into clearer focus. In return, Rwanda has accused Congolese president Felix Tshisekedi of working with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) the armed group associated with the 1994 Hutu genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and whose leaders are allegedly operating from Eastern Congo.

The close allyship between Congo and Burundi is seemingly at odds with Rwanda, who has refused to pull out troops from Congo and is allegedly supplying arms and missiles to M23. Those allegations have spilled over into Ndayishimiye’s claims that Rwanda is now allied with RED-Tabara. The border closure is a symbolic move and, as shown by the partially taped-over jerseys that disqualified Dynamo Basketball Club at this year’s BAL, Burundi’s stance doesn’t look like it will be thawing anytime soon.