At least 100 dead in Burundi attack by rebel group – military source

At least 100 rebels have been killed after a cross-border
attack against the central African nation of Burundi from the
Democratic Republic of Congo, a top military source told
AFP Sunday.
A general in the Burundian army, speaking on condition that
he not be named, said the attack by the unidentified rebel
group had been defeated after five days of heavy fighting in
the border area north of the capital Bujumbura.
“After five days of non-stop military operations, the armed
group which attacked Burundi has been wiped out by our
security forces. In total, we killed 105 of them and captured
four, out of a total of the 121 who entered Cibitoke province
from the DRCongo,” the general said.
“We also seized a 60mm mortar, five rocket launchers,
machine guns and more than 100 assault rifles,” he said,
adding the Burundian army had lost two soldiers. Other
military sources said around 12 soldiers were killed in the
fighting.
There was no further confirmation of the claim, with army
spokesman Colonel Gaspard Baratuza declining to comment
officially on the fighting “while military operations in the
area are still in progress.”
A previous toll given on Wednesday put the toll at 35 dead,
including 34 rebels and one government soldier.
Burundian officials and witnesses said the group of
unidentified rebels crossed into Burundi overnight Monday
from DRCongo’s eastern Kivu region, a chronically unstable
and resource-rich area that is home to dozens of rebel
groups.
Colonel Baratuza said troops had seized documents
allowing the army to get information on the size of the force
and the identity of their leaders, but he did not disclose the
identity of the group.

- ‘Teach a lesson’ -

Security forces then fought to prevent the rebels from
reaching the Kibira forest, an area used in the past by rebel
groups as a base to stage further attacks inside Burundi.
“The security forces, backed by the local population,
surrounded the group in Murwi commune, and chased them
without respite, giving them no time to recover or sleep,”
said the military source.
Burundi opposition and civil society sources said they had
heard reports of rebels being disarmed and then executed
by shooting or with machetes, with the killings carried out
by the Imbonerakure, a controversial youth wing of
Burundi’s ruling CNDD-FDD party.
The Burundian military denied the allegations, but the senior
source acknowledge the security forces — which included
soldiers back from African Union operations in Somalia —
wanted to “hit the rebels hard” and “teach a lesson” to other
rebel groups.
Previous attacks in Burundi’s border region have been
claimed by a splinter faction of the National Liberation
Forces (FNL). The main body of FNL — a highly disciplined
group notorious for singing hymns as they carried out
attacks — signed a peace deal with the Burundian
government in 2009 and have since become a political
party.
The rebels who still fight on have claimed a string of attacks
in 2014, most recently in October when they claimed to have
killed six soldiers, and vowed to “intensify” their raids ahead
of presidential elections in June. The group, however, have
denied they were behind the latest attack.
Burundi, a small nation in Africa’s Great Lakes region,
emerged in 2006 from a brutal 13-year civil war and its
political climate remains fractious ahead of the elections
when President Pierre Nkurunziza, in power since 2005, is
expected to run for a third term in office despite opponents’
claims that that would violate Burundi’s constitution.