Seventh-day Adventists in the central African country of Burundi are looking for “souls’ salvation” not “political power,” said a church spokesperson last week.

Jethron Nsabiyaremye, communication director for the Adventist Church in Burundi, made his comments in the wake of an August 13 newswire report claiming that many members of a militant rebel group, Forces nationals de liberation (FNL), are also members of the Adventist Church.

“There is no connection between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the FNL,” declares Nsabiyaremye. “The Adventist Church preaches love and reconciliation, whereas the FNL is an armed movement.” He adds that the groups represent “two different realities among which there is no possible relationship.”

Nsabiyaremye traces the initial misrepresentation to a report from an organization operating in Kenya; a report which has since been recycled, without verification, by a number of European news agencies.

However, Nsabiyaremye confirms a newswire report that FNL rebels entered the Mutanga home of an Adventist pastor, Joseph Ndikubwayo, on the weekend of August 11, ransacking the house and setting fire to two vehicles outside.

“We once again affirm the church will never keep quiet about the mission the Lord has assigned to it,” says Nsabiyaremye. It is a mission to teach that people should not kill, but instead love one another, as they would themselves, he says.

For the past eight years, Burundi has been torn by ethnic and political violence. There are some 60,000 Adventist Church members in the country, which has a population of just over 6 million people.