14 killed in Burundi-DRCongo border clash
No fewer than 14 fighters were killed on Tuesday in clashes
between Burundian security forces and members of an unidentified armed group
who came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said.
According to AFP, Burundian officials and witnesses said the
armed group crossed into Cibitoke province north of the capital Bujumbura
during the night, but that Burundian soldiers and police had managed to gain
the upper hand after a day of fighting.
"The fighting has just come to an end. I myself counted
14 bodies of attackers who were killed in the fighting," the governor of
Cibitoke province, Anselme Nsabimana, said.
He said security forces had prevented the group from
reaching the Kibira forest, an area used in the past as a base to stage further
attacks inside Burundi.
Burundi's army spokesman, Colonel Gaspard Baratuza, said the
attackers were now on the run, but said authorities had yet to establish what
group they were from.
"Our soldiers are pursuing them. Roadblocks have been
put up so that they don't escape," he said, adding that reinforcements had
been sent to the area.
A local witness said around 200 fighters armed with assault
rifles and grenade launchers crossed into the country from DRCongo's eastern
Kivu region, a chronically unstable and resource-rich area that is home to
dozens of rebel groups.
Fighting has been concentrated around Buganda, situated 50
kilometres (30 miles) north of the capital Bujumbura, and officials said
thousands of residents had fled the area.
Previous attacks in Burundi's border region have been
claimed by a splinter faction of the National Liberation Forces, FNL, whose
full name is Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People.
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
this year, most recently in October when they claimed to have killed six
soldiers, and vowed to "intensify" their raids ahead of presidential
elections in June 2015.
The group, however, 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 polls.
President Pierre Nkurunziza, in power since 2005, is
expected to run for a third term in office next year despite opponents' claims
that that would violate Burundi's constitution.
Burundi's last elections in 2010 were boycotted by most
opposition parties, and Nkurunziza's opponents are again accusing the ruling
CNDD-FDD party of eliminating any dissent ahead of the next polls.
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