Six die in Burundi battle
2003-11-01 22:31
Rutunga - Two soldiers and four rebels were killed on Saturday near the Burundian capital Bujumbura in an attack blamed on the central African country's second-largest Hutu rebel group, officials said.
The deaths came as Burundi's government and largest rebel group were due to resume meeting in South Africa to put the finishing touches to a deal aimed at bringing peace to the country's 10-year-old civil war.
According to officials in Rutunga, 30km south of the capital, the six were killed when National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels attacked an army position.
On Friday there were also clashes in two areas near Bujumbura, in which FNL rebels battled government troops, officials said.
The officials were unable to give details of any casualties, but said that about two thousand residents fled the scene of the fighting.
About 300 000 people have been killed in the civil war that broke out in 1993 between rebels of Burundi's Hutu majority and the army dominated by minority Tutsis.
A South African-brokered peace deal was signed this year, giving officers' posts and ministerial positions to the main rebel group, the Forces for Defense of Democracy.
The details of that agreement were due to be hammered out at the talks under way this week in Pretoria.
But there has been renewed fighting in recent weeks between the rebel groups and the army. And the FNL has refused to take part in the peace negotiations.