Eight slain hours after 'truce'
2003-07-22 15:33
Bujumbura - Burundi officials on Tuesday accused the rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) of killing eight civilians, including a child, in an ambush a day after renewing a tattered truce.
"The FDD mounted an ambush on a bridge (in the north of the country)," said Kayanza provincial governor Edouard Nkurunziza.
"Then they shot at cars to stop them and eight civilians including a child were killed."
Eight other civilians were wounded, five of them seriously, he added, saying the ambush was set up near the town of Kayanza, about 100km north of Bujumbura.
"The rebels fired knowingly at civilian vehicles," he added.
On Sunday in Tanzania, Burundi's transitional government and the FDD once again pledged to respect a ceasefire signed seven months ago, but never put into effect.
Since 1993, more than 300 000 people, mostly civilians have died in Burundi's civil war, which pits rebels drawn from the Hutu majority, such as the FDD, against an army dominated by the Tutsi minority.
- AFX