Thousands flee fresh rebel clashes

Some 10,000 civilians fled their homes on Wednesday following renewed fighting between two rebels groups in Burundi's Bujumbura Rural Province, a local official told IRIN on Thursday. The governor of the province, Ignace Ntawembarira, said the 2,463 families (average of five people per family), from Bugarama and Muzani in Mubimbi Commune, had fled to Kinama, in the same commune. He said the fighting between Pierre Nkurunziza's faction of the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) and Agathon Rwasa's faction of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) had subsided by early Thursday. The fighting took place in the Bugarama valley in Mubimbi, 25 km from the capital, Bujumbura. Local authorities said that some of the displaced had sought shelter in shops, classrooms and in the homes of Kinama residents. Ntawembarira said he had appealed to humanitarian agencies for food for the displaced. He added that a team comprising UN agencies and their partner organisations was due to visit Kinama on Friday to assess the needs of the displaced. The UN World Food Programme began on Monday distribution of food to 3,021 families at a site in Mumbimbi. These are the families who fled rebel fighting in Gisagara and Kiziba villages on 6 September. The Mubimbi site has a total of 3,33i families. Ntawembarira said at least 2,800 more families at Martyazo were also in need of food. The latest CNDD-FNL fighting led government officials to close, until 11 a.m., the main highway connecting Bujumbura to Gitega, the second largest city in the country. Ntawembarira said cases of abduction had increased across the province. He blamed the FNL for most of the cases, which he said at times led to the killing of those abducted if they were suspected of collaborating with CNDD-FDD. He told IRIN that he was making efforts to establish the exact number of those who had been abducted. Local authorities in Muhuta, another commune in Bujumbura-Rural, said three people were killed on Wednesday night. Rwasa's FNL, which is active in Bujumbura Rural, remains the only rebel group that has so far refused negotiate with the Burundi government on the possibility of a ceasefire agreement. The faction had demanded direct talks with Tutsi government officials.