diff --git a/R-package/src/Makevars.in b/R-package/src/Makevars.in
index 54f3acaa52bb..9b2610638366 100644
--- a/R-package/src/Makevars.in
+++ b/R-package/src/Makevars.in
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ PKG_LIBS = @OPENMP_CXXFLAGS@ @OPENMP_LIB@ @ENDIAN_FLAG@ @BACKTRACE_LIB@ -pthread
 OBJECTS= \
     ./xgboost_R.o \
     ./xgboost_custom.o \
-    ./xgboost_assert.o \
     ./init.o \
     $(PKGROOT)/src/metric/metric.o \
     $(PKGROOT)/src/metric/elementwise_metric.o \
diff --git a/R-package/src/Makevars.win b/R-package/src/Makevars.win
index c0815353203c..05399ad4d17b 100644
--- a/R-package/src/Makevars.win
+++ b/R-package/src/Makevars.win
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ PKG_LIBS = $(SHLIB_OPENMP_CXXFLAGS)  -DDMLC_CMAKE_LITTLE_ENDIAN=1  $(SHLIB_PTHRE
 OBJECTS= \
     ./xgboost_R.o \
     ./xgboost_custom.o \
-    ./xgboost_assert.o \
     ./init.o \
     $(PKGROOT)/src/metric/metric.o \
     $(PKGROOT)/src/metric/elementwise_metric.o \
diff --git a/R-package/src/xgboost_assert.c b/R-package/src/xgboost_assert.c
deleted file mode 100644
index 4706a039e8a6..000000000000
--- a/R-package/src/xgboost_assert.c
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,26 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright (c) 2014 by Contributors
-#include <stdio.h>
-#include <stdarg.h>
-#include <Rinternals.h>
-
-// implements error handling
-void XGBoostAssert_R(int exp, const char *fmt, ...) {
-  char buf[1024];
-  if (exp == 0) {
-    va_list args;
-    va_start(args, fmt);
-    vsprintf(buf, fmt, args);
-    va_end(args);
-    error("AssertError:%s\n", buf);
-  }
-}
-void XGBoostCheck_R(int exp, const char *fmt, ...) {
-  char buf[1024];
-  if (exp == 0) {
-    va_list args;
-    va_start(args, fmt);
-    vsprintf(buf, fmt, args);
-    va_end(args);
-    error("%s\n", buf);
-  }
-}