Last rebel group ceases fire
2004-04-22 10:42
Bujumbura - Burundi's last active rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), said on Wednesday it would immediately stop attacking government troops and their allies and that it was willing to consider holding peace talks.
The FNL's congress, meeting in Tanzania, "has just decided there will be an immediate halt to hostilities. We will not attack the army and the FDD (Forces for the Defence of Democracy, a former rebel group now allied to the government) but if they attack us, will we respond," FNL spokesperson Pasteur Habiramana told journalists.
More than 300 000 people, mostly civilians, have died in Burundi since a variety of armed groups drawn from the country's large Hutu majority took up arms against the then Tutsi-led government in 1993.