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At least 15 individuals had been killed when gunmen attacked an space in southern Burundi, three native witnesses instructed Reuters on Monday.
It was unclear whether or not the dead had been members of the safety forces, civilians or the attackers. The witnesses requested to not be named for concern of repercussions.
The preventing in Bugarama district in Rumonge province started on Sunday and continued into Monday and other people had been hiding within the bush, a resident who escaped the attack instructed Reuters.
“The gunmen kidnapped everyone they met and killed them before engaging in fighting with the army on Sunday morning,” the person stated. He requested for anonymity to keep away from reprisals.
A senior authorities official stated the attack, which occurred as the nation was holding native elections, was not surprising and probably linked to the upcoming repatriation of refugees from Rwanda.
“The government anticipated that armed groups opposed to the government will attempt to carry out attacks ahead of the first repatriation of refugees from Rwanda,” the official stated.
Rwanda hosts hundreds of refugees from neighbouring Burundi who fled violence in 2015.
A message posted on Twitter claiming to be from Red Tabara, a Burundian insurgent group that claims it’s based mostly in Congo’s South Kivu area, claimed accountability for the attack and stated it had “neutralized” 9 policemen and about 20 militants. The veracity of the account or the message couldn’t be verified.
The assertion on Twitter stated presidential elections in May, gained by the ruling occasion’s candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye, had been “a farce” and known as for a brand new vote.
The assertion additionally known as for the disarmament of a number of militia teams such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a gaggle based by Hutu officers who fled Rwanda after orchestrating the 1994 genocide, which it claims has infiltrated safety forces in Burundi.
The military didn’t reply to requests for touch upon the preventing.
Burundi has an ethnic Hutu majority and Tutsi minority, the identical cut up as in Rwanda.
It has been affected by many years of ethnic and political violence, together with a bloody civil battle which lasted 12 years by which 300,000 individuals, principally civilians, had been killed. (Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom, Editing by William Maclean)
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