Bujumbura “calm”

Considerable calm has returned to Bujumbura and the surrounding area since the signing of the peace agreement at the end of last month in Arusha. Humanitarian sources and the Burundi army spokesman, Colonel Longin Minani, dismissed recent press reports of fighting in Bujumbura as “untrue” and “exaggerated”. Minani confirmed the incidents in the area around Burundi’s border with Tanzania and also said there had been what he termed “a few cases of banditry” in Bujumbura. “The fighting is caused by attacks launched by rebels who have their bases in Tanzania,” he told IRIN. “The army has been pursuing them but we wish the Tanzanian army could act as stipulated in the agreement signed between the defence ministers of the two countries [Burundi and Tanzania],” Minani said. Minani added that the most recent rebel attack in the southeast took place on Thursday night when two people were killed and five others injured. He said the “rebels” attacked Bukemba centre and drove away some 170 cattle.