Burundi: three dead after several grenade attacks in Bujumbura
A view of Bujumbura, the economic capital of Burundi.
AFP / Carl de Souza
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Bujumbura is in shock again.
Three people were killed and dozens of others injured, including fifteen seriously, this Monday evening, September 20, 2021, during two simultaneous grenade attacks which targeted in particular the main bus station of Bujumbura, at a rush hour. .
Attacks described as terrorist by the authorities and which have not been claimed.
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These are
three grenades
that were launched almost simultaneously on Monday to 19 hours in Bujumbura.
Two exploded at the bus station near the old central market in the heart of the city, right next to hundreds of people queuing up for a bus that would bring them back to their respective neighborhoods.
People then started running in all directions screaming, dozens of buses fled at full speed, police fired in the air.
Witnesses describe a scene of generalized panic that lasted for many minutes before help was organized.
Another grenade was thrown near the Jabe market, in the Bwiza district, still in the center of the economic capital of Burundi.
It exploded near a group of fish sellers killing one of them on the spot, according to witnesses.
In the end, the death toll would be three deaths according to witnesses, two and several wounded, according to the Interior Ministry which has just released a press release denouncing what it qualifies as "
terrorist acts
" and condemns "
an unnamed barbarism which once again demonstrates that Burundi is exposed to the risks of terrorism
”.
Bujumbura suffered the same type of grenade attacks last May which left three dead and dozens injured.
These new grenades, which have not been claimed so far, also come after another grenade attack the day before which left three people dead in Gitega, the capital.
But especially after
a mortar attack on Bujumbura airport
, on the night of Saturday to Sunday, when President Évariste Ndayishimiye had to take a plane to New York to participate in the UN General Assembly.
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