Burundi’s Ex-Army Chief Assassinated As African Union Warns Of Calamitous Risk Of Civil War To Region

Event Summary:

• On Saturday 15^th August, 2015 unidentified attackers shot dead Burundi’s former army chief of staff outside his home in Bujumbura
• Colonel Jean Bikomagu was with his daughter who was seriously injured and no money stolen from the two.
• Colonel Bikomagu was a key figure in the former Tutsi-dominated army during the civil war
• His assassination comes barely a fortnight before the de-facto internal security chief General Adolphe Nshimirimana was assassinated

Analysis:

Colonel Jean Bikomagu was on 15^th August 2015 shot and killed outside his home as he came from church my unknown assailants.

Col. Bikomagu was former head of formerly Tustsi-dominated Burundi’s army during the country’s 13 years of civil war that left at least 300,000 people dead. The civil war was on ethnic basis mainly by Hutu Rebels who were led by President Nkurunziza against the Tutsi minority that controlled the army.

According to eye witness and family release he was accompanied by his daughter was seriously injured and sited that the killing was not a robbery gone wrong but rather an assassination.

Col. Bikomagus’s killing comes barely a fortnight after the assassination of Burundi’s de facto internal security chief General Adolphe Nshimirimana. Col. Bikomagu’s killing is a symbol seeing as he was out of politics and bore no real power in the army.

Intelligence indicate that the killing of the Colonel was an act of revenge against the killing of General Adolphe who security and rebel chiefs had vowed to avenge his dead by killing an equivalently prominent figure ‘on the other side’.

Summary and Forecast:

The catastrophic repercussions that are likely to befall Burundi following recent high profile assassinations are likely to plunge her even worse civil war that could affect the entire volatile Great Lakes Region.

The crisis was fueled by the hotly disputed bid for a third term in office by President Pierre Nkurunziza that caused violence that has forced thousands to flee Burundi into the neighboring countries.

Following the killing of Col. Bikomagu the African Union through its chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has warned against the impeding danger the two successive high profile assassinations will pose not only on Burundi but the region.

Dlamini-Zuma in a statement said, “This despicable act, and multiple other acts of violence recorded in recent months, illustrates yet again the gravity of the situation in Burundi – and the real risk of seeing a further deterioration with catastrophic consequences both for the country itself, and for the whole region”.

In the event the both sides do not dialogue to end the standoff, the country that has a history of ethnic difference, a civil war would erupt which is feared to affect the whole region.

The Dlamini-Zuma echoed the support of the Yoweri Museveni-led EAC mediation talks saying that the two sides should find a consensus and resolve the crisis before it becomes calamitous.