21 hurt in new Burundi attacks

2010-06-19 19:22

Bujumbura - A new spate of grenade attacks in Burundi overnight left 21 people wounded, two of them seriously, as the country passes through a crucial series of elections, a police spokesperson said on Saturday.

In the worst attack, wounding 20 people, a grenade was thrown into a bar and another exploded near a butcher's shop in the northern town of Kayanza, Major Pierre Chanel Ntarabaganyi told AFP.

A child was wounded by another grenade at Muramvya in the centre of the country and two grenades were thrown at a police patrol in the western village of Mpanda, causing no casualties, he added.

"Seventeen suspects were arrested at Mpanda and four at Kayanza, and are being questioned by police," Ntarabaganyi said.

Nearly 40 such attacks in all parts of Burundi have been reported over the past week or so, leaving two people dead and 37 wounded, as well as property damaged.

In addition around 30 offices of the ruling party and one of an opposition group have been set on fire, the police spokesperson said.

'Sabotage'

A military spokesperson on Friday denounced the blasts as acts of "sabotage ahead of the presidential poll" on June 28.

The political and security climate has been tense in Burundi since May 24 local polls, which saw all of the country's opposition parties accuse President Pierre Nkurunziza's ruling party of rigging its way to victory.

Opposition parties have since announced they would boycott the presidential poll, leaving the incumbent as the only candidate, despite calls by the international community for them to rejoin the race.

A foreign diplomat told AFP that the government appeared to be preparing a crackdown, saying that Foreign Minister Augustin Nsanze told the diplomatic corps on Friday that the opposition was preparing a coup.

Other sources told AFP that some 100 opposition members had been arrested since the local elections.

In Burundi, which is still struggling to emerge from 13 years of civil war and is packed with recently demobbed fighters, grenades go for $1 on the black market and are the weapon of choice for everybody - from politically-motivated groups to disgruntled lovers.

- SAPA