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10 die in Burundi rebel attack
18/04/2008 21:24 - (SA)
Eric Manirakiza
Bujumbura - Suspected rebels attacked the Burundian capital, killing four soldiers and six civilians in the most serious rebel assault in more than a year, a government spokesperson said on Friday.
Rebels from the National Liberation Force launched mortars and fired small arms on Thursday night in an attack that last nearly an hour, government spokesperson Hassa Mossi said.
He said 10 people were killed. Local radio reported that six rebels were wounded and captured, and three soldiers injured in the attack.
However, a spokesperson for the rebels accused the government of attacking the rebels first. Pasteur Habimana said the group's fighters fired back in self defence. "The government does not like negotiations," he said, speaking from Tanzania.
The National Liberation Force is the only rebel group in Burundi that has not signed a peace deal with President Pierre Nkurunziza's government.
The tiny East African nation has struggled to overcome a 13-year conflict sparked when paratroopers from the Tutsi ethnic minority, which had long dominated politics and the military, assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, a member of the Hutu majority, in October 1993. The conflict claimed more than 250 000 lives.
Nkurunziza, a former rebel, was elected president in 2005 as part of a deal to bring an end to the conflict.
In a separate incident, two people were killed in fighting on Thursday night in Kamenge district, district chief Mathais Barimwab said.
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