[1][2] The group opposes the political control of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy and former president Pierre Nkurunziza and is allied with a number of other opposition groups, including the Popular Forces of Burundi.
[3] In an interview to Jeune Afrique, Biremba explained the goals of the organization: [T]he motives which pushed us to take up arms are the same as those which pushed Nkurunziza himself to enter into rebellion in 1994: absence of democracy and justice, no rule of law.While many members of the group were former members of Alexis Sinduhije's Movement for Solidarity and Democracy, both Sinduhije and Biremba deny any connection between RED-Tabara and the party.
[7] The combatants claimed that they had been recruited from refugee camps in Rwanda and received training by people in Rwandan military uniforms.
In August 2017, reports from the UN Group of Experts and Radio France Internationale that several RED-Tabara fighters had left the group and joined the Popular Forces of Burundi.,[9][7] On August 27, 2017, leader Melchiade Biremba was captured in the Congolese village of Rurambo and detained in Kinshasa.
[10] Despite these issues, the National Defence Force (Burundi) and the Imbonerakure conducted several incursions into the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2021 and 2022 aimed at attacking the group.,[11][12] On December 23, 2023, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on the village of Vugizo which killed 20 people and wounded nine others.