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Burundi gunmen target military sites in deadly attacks Burundi gunmen attack military sites as political violence intensifies
(about 1 hour later)
Up to seven people have been killed in fighting as anti-government gunmen attacked military sites in Burundi’s capital, officials and soldiers said. Political unrest in Burundi has escalated after unidentified gunmen attacked two military facilities in the capital, Bujumbura.
In the latest flare-up in a country western powers fear is sliding back into ethnic conflict, two soldiers and five attackers were killed in clashes around a base in Ngagara, a district of Bujumbura, one soldier said. He lives outside the base, one of three sites attacked in the capital, but said he spoke to colleagues inside. The death toll was not immediately known, but a senior officer said dozens of people had been killed early on Friday, including the attackers.
A military spokesman could not be reached for comment. The fighting – the worst seen in the country since an attempted coup in May – began at 4am (2am GMT), targeting a base in the north of the city and a training college in the south.
Heavy gunfire and blasts erupted in the early hours of Friday morning and shots were still heard across the capital after daybreak. Residents said the streets were empty when people were normally heading to work and police were out in force.
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The violence in Burundi risks further unsettling an already volatile region. Twenty years ago there was a genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. A senior officer told Agence France-Presse: “After more than two hours of clashes, the army repulsed the southern attack, while virtually all the attackers were killed in Ngagara base. There are dozens of deaths among the attackers and we also have losses.”
Night-time gunfire and sporadic blasts have been common in Bujumbura during a crisis sparked in April by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term, which opponents, often called “Sindumuja”, said violated a deal that ended civil war in 2005. Nkurunziza won a disputed election in July. Willy Nyamitwe, a presidential media adviser, using a term to describe political opponents, tweeted: “Situation is returning to normal as firearms are seized, many Sindumuja assailants killed or arrested.”
The crisis led to a failed coup in May. One of the generals behind that coup said in July the group still sought to topple the president, raising worries that the poor country was slipping into conflict again. Other plotters were caught and face trial. The #Sindumuja insurgency ended up with a failed Coup. The shots in the night conclude with the today defeated attack. Long live #Burundi
“Sindumuja tried to attack military camps but they failed,” presidential media adviser Willy Niyamitwe wrote on Twitter, describing the raids as a diversion to try to free prisoners. Gunfire could still be heard as late as 8.30am. The streets of Bujumbura, normally bustling at that time, were reportedly empty as residents chose to stay at home.
Without mentioning casualties, he dismissed comments that the city was empty, saying it was “business as usual” with people at work and children at school. The identity of the gunmen remains unknown, but they are likely to belong to one of the small but uncoordinated armed groups that have been fighting against the government.
The coordinated attacks mark a significant escalation in violence in Burundi, with analysts saying they could be the opening salvo of a new civil war.
The country has been in crisis ever since Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a third term as president earlier this year. Although this was rubber-stamped by the constitutional court, and he duly won an election in July, critics including the African Union have said his third term in office is illegal.
As tensions have increased, so has political violence. Police crackdowns, extrajudicial executions and armed skirmishes between the government and various rebel groups have become commonplace, leaving at least 200 people dead and causing more than 200,000 to flee the country.
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A deputy presidential spokesman said on Twitter that a cabinet meeting was taking place on Friday morning. He also said the aim of the “armed gang” was to free prisoners. Burundi’s last civil war ended 10 years ago, but history may be repeating itself, warned Yolande Bouka, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies.
Alongside the raid on Ngagara camp in the north of Bujumbura, two southern sites were attacked – the Muha camp and ISCAM, an institute for officers, soldiers and residents said. “If you look at the previous civil war, you had very similar patterns of violence. You have small armed groups that are starting with grenade attacks here and there, and eventually it escalates and these groups get momentum and resources,” she said.
Battle lines in Burundi’s crisis have until now followed the political divide, but western powers and regional countries fear old ethnic rifts could reopen if violence continues unchecked. Bouka said the international community had already missed several chances to mediate between armed groups, the political opposition and the government, and that it may now be too late. “The perpetration of violence is not isolated on one side or another,” she said. “Gaining control of these groups on both sides of the divide is going to become increasingly difficult.”
Burundi’s 12-year civil war had 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. On Tuesday, the UN special adviser for the prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng, warned that the situation in Burundi was spiralling out of control. “I am not saying that tomorrow there will be a genocide in Burundi, but there is a serious risk that if we do not stop the violence, this may end with a civil war, and following such a civil war, anything is possible,” he said.