Governor of Makamba says rebels massing for attack

Hundreds of Burundian Hutu rebels massing on the Tanzanian side of the River Maragarazi pose a "serious threat" to Burundi's southern province of Makamba, the provincial governor, Col Gabriel Gunungu, has said.

He said on Tuesday on Radio Publique Africaine that the rebels, from Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie, were preparing to attack the communes of Kayogoro, Mbanda, Kibago and Nyanza-Lac, all bordering on Tanzania.

Burundi army spokesman Augustin Nzabampema told IRIN on Wednesday that there were perhaps hundreds of rebels concentrated in pockets across the border, and that the army had deployed to face the threat. He added that despite the threat, civilians in the Makamba area near the border had remained at home. "So far, there are no reports of movement of civilians," he said.

Gunungu warning was broadcast a day after state-owned Burundi Radio quoted Brig-Gen Sylvestre Nimubona, the commander of the Third Military Region, as saying that "the enemy is in disarray" within the country. He said groups of three or four rebels, often disguised, were making random attacks along National Highway Number One for food and other supplies.

Col Nzabampema told IRIN that in an operation last week the army flushed out rebels from their strongholds in the Kibira Forest, just north of the capital, Bujumbura. The more active of the two Hutu rebel groups still fighting the government, the Force nationale de liberation, had been operating in the forest. Recently, there have been reports of the forces of the two rebel groups merging to combat the transitional power-sharing government of Hutus and Tutsis.