Burundi: around 20 dead in an ambush targeting civilian vehicles
Security forces deployed in Bujumbura, Burundi.
(Illustrative image) AFP / File
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
It is a real outburst of unprecedented violence that happened on the evening of Saturday June 26 in central Burundi.
An unidentified armed group ambushed vehicles traveling on National Road No. 2 which connects Bujumbura to Gitega, the country's new capital.
The toll is heavy, from 15 to 20 civilians killed, some were burned alive in cold blood.
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The ambush took place in Rutegama commune, Muramvya province, some 70 kilometers east of Bujumbura, at around 8 p.m. local time (6 p.m. UT).
Heavily armed assailants cut the road with stones right in the middle of the road, forcing vehicles to stop.
They then began to shoot point blank at the first arrivals, in particular two transport vehicles.
Then the attackers sprinkled gasoline on these two vehicles where there were still a dozen people screaming and crying, before setting them on fire, according to the testimony of survivors, who describe a scene "
of a great cruelty
”.
In the end, thirteen people were burned alive in the two vehicles, between 3 and 5 were killed by bullets and fifteen others injured.
These attackers withdrew about ten minutes later, killing two people who had the misfortune to cross their path a kilometer further, before help arrived on the spot.
Interrogation around the attackers
For the moment, the identity of these attackers remains a real mystery, no Burundian rebel group has claimed the paternity of this ambush. This Sunday, the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security confirmed in a
tweet
the ambush, which it described as "
terrorism
", without further details.
Such ambushes
are more and more frequent in Burundi. Twelve people were killed in the same circumstances on May 9, on the same road. No assailant had been arrested immediately. Then last Friday, the spokesperson for the ministry in charge of the Interior, Pierre Nkurikiye, announced the arrest of those responsible for the May attack and other similar attacks that had preceded it, pointing to ex-FAB retirees, members of the old army then dominated by the Tutsi minority.
Since Saturday evening, the main opposition party, the CNL of Agathon Rwasa, has deplored the arrest of a dozen of its activists in the commune of Rutegama.
The opposition and civil society accuse the authorities of seeking to instrumentalize the ethnic issue, but also of taking the opportunity to repress political opponents, speaking for their part of attacks that would be linked to internal dissensions within the party. in power.
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