At least 16 people were killed by rebels in an attack in the Bugarama in the southern province of Rumonge in Burundi. According to residents, the fighting began on Sunday and continued into Monday and people were hiding in the bush.
The gunmen kidnapped everyone they came across after they which they brutally killed them. The rebels later engaged with the military and police before they were overpowered forcing them to flee.
Intelligence out of Rumonge province indicated that Red Tabara, a Burundian rebel group that is based in Congo’s South Kivu region, claimed responsibility for the attack. The statement further said presidential elections in May, won by the ruling party’s candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye, were a sham and called for a new vote. The statement also called for the disarmament of several militia groups such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a group founded by Hutu officials who fled Rwanda after orchestrating the 1994 genocide, which it claims has infiltrated security forces in Burundi.
Tensions are high in the region various rebel groups seek dominance centered around tribal groups as the government prepares for the first repatriation of refugees that fled 2015 violence from Rwanda. Burundi has an ethnic Hutu majority and Tutsi minority, the same split as in Rwanda. It has been plagued by decades of ethnic and political violence, including a bloody civil war that lasted 12 years in which 300,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
