Rwandan President Paul Kagame has warned of a possible “genocide” in neighboring Burundi if the Central African country fails to stop ethnic violence.

Kagame made the remarks during a speech shared on social media on Sunday, calling on Burundi to avoid ethnic violence in his country that led to genocide in 1994.

"They should have learned the lesson of our history," Kagame said during his speech in the capital, Kigali, referring to the massacre of some 800,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsis.
The killings by the majority Hutus stopped after rebels led by Kagame ended the genocide.

The Rwandan leader criticized Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza’s handling of the situation in his country and further accused him of allowing his people to die.

This comes a day after at least nine people were killed by gunmen in the southern Kanyosha district of the Burundian capital, Bujumbura.

The attack took place shortly before police were to launch a crackdown aimed at stripping civilians of weapons by conducting house to house searches.

Burundi, which is about 85 percent Hutu and 14 percent Tutsi, plunged into turmoil in April, when Nkurunziza announced his bid to compete for a third presidential term. The decision was denounced by the opposition, arguing that the move was contrary to the constitution, which only allows two successive presidential terms.

Some 200 people have been killed since.