BURUNDI: 18 CIVILIANS KILLED IN FIGHTING BETWEEN ARMY AND HUTU REBELS.

Record ID: 636814

  • Title: BURUNDI: 18 CIVILIANS KILLED IN FIGHTING BETWEEN ARMY AND HUTU REBELS.
  • Date: 2nd October 2000
  • Summary: BODY OF DEAD WOMAN IN HOUSE/ PEOPLE LOOKING INTO HOUSE THROUGH WINDOW/ BODIES INSIDE HOUSE (6 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 17th October 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MATAKURA AND BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI
  • Country: Burundi
  • Topics: Conflict,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA90602OS34GDOM5LP5EIE3QUJY
  • Story Text: At least 18 civilians, among them two women and two
    children, were killed during clashes between Burundis ethnic
    Hutu rebels and the army on the outskirts of the capital on
    Friday (September 29).



    Thousands of civilians fled Burundi's suburb of
    Kamenge on Friday
    (September 29) after heavy fighting raged on there on Thursday
    night (September 28).

    Kamenge has always been the most tense place in the
    capital. The poor Bujumbura suburb is the historic Hutu
    stronghold. In 1995, Burundi's Tutsi led army fighting Hutu
    rebels, shelled Kamenge, forcing the predominantly Hutu
    civilian population to flee the area.

    A rebuilding pregramme has been going on in Kamenge for
    the last three years, but the latest outbreak of fighting
    could lead to more loss of life and further destruction.

    Bodies of 18 people, mostly young men, but also those of
    two women and two babies, where discovered on Friday near a
    house in the valley of Nyabagere river in Kamenge. The bodies
    were discovered after a reported attack by Hutu rebels on a
    nearby government military post earlier on Friday.

    Local officials and some residents told reporters that
    Hutu rebels had dragged civilians from their homes and shot
    them in nearby fields. Other witnesses said hundreds of
    civilians had fled Kamenge during the rebel attack, but were
    forced to return home by government soldiers.

    But Hutu areas are not the only ones to suffer from the
    growing tension in the Burundian capital. Last week-end, Hutu
    rebels reportedly killed 11 civilians in the largely Tutsi
    surburb of Mutakura.

    Acoording to locals in Mutakura, a large group of Hutu
    rebels, some in military uniforms, some in civilian clothes,
    armed with machine guns and machetes attacked the town on
    September 23.

    Around 200,000 people, most of them civilians, have died
    in seven years of civil war between Hutu rebels and Burundi's
    Tutsi-dominated army.

    (dw/lh)
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