Bodies on streets of Burundi capital after day of chaos

Eighty seven people were killed on Friday (December 11) in a day of clashes in the Burundian capital, the army said, including four police officers and four soldiers.

Scores of dead bodies were seen on the streets of Bujumbura on Saturday (December 12) following the worst outbreak of violence since a failed coup in May.

Blasts and gunfire echoed around Bujumbura for most of Friday after unknown gunmen attacked three military sites. There was no fighting overnight and witnesses said the capital’s streets were calm on Saturday morning.

The clashes were condemned by the United States, which like other Western powers fears the central African nation could slide back into ethnic conflict.

Unrest in Burundi, which started in April when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced plans for a third term in office, has also unnerved a region that remains volatile two decades after the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.

A senior police official in the flashpoint Nyakabiga district said there were 20 young men killed in the neighbourhood, and a Reuters witness saw at least 16 bullet-ridden bodies in the same area.

Residents said some of the dead had been rounded up by the police during the day after house-to-house searches on Friday, an allegation the police denied.

“As I was trying to close the door I saw a bunch of policemen walking past then they spotted a bunch of men in the area and they asked them to stop. The men got scared and they started running and the policemen started opening fire. At that time our son was trying to close the door and when the soldiers spotted him they just shot him there and then,” said one resident in Nyakabiga who lost a relative.

Army spokesman Gaspard Baratuza said the “sweep operation” was finished yesterday and confirmed fatalities on both sides after the heavy fighting.

“On the side of the enemy 79 of them died, 45 have been captured, 97 arms seized and lot of ammunitions. On our side, we lost eight soldiers, four of them from the army and four of them from the police. 21 have been injured; nine soldiers and 11 police,” he said.

Willy Nyamitwe, a presidential advisor, called for Kenya Airways to resume flying to Burundi after the carrier and regional rivals RwandAir and Ethiopian Airlines cancelled flights on Friday.

“Today’s flights in and out of Burundi should not be cancelled since the roadblocks are removed. Situation is back to normal,” Nyamitwe said on Twitter, addressing Kenya Airways.

Until now, battle lines in Burundi‘s crisis have followed the political divide. But western powers and neighbouring countries fear prolonged violence could reopen old ethnic rifts.

Burundi‘s 12-year civil war, which ended in 2005, pitted rebel groups of the Hutu majority, including one led by Nkurunziza, against what was then an army led by the Tutsi minority. Rwanda has the same ethnic mix.

One of the generals behind the failed coup attempt in May said in July the rebel group still aimed to topple the president and experts have warned that the army, which was restructured after the civil war to include rebel fighters, might fracture.