Heavy fighting in southern provinces

Heavy fighting is underway between Burundi’s army and the rebels in the country’s southern provinces of Makamba and Rutana. “Fighting is very hot there because the infiltration [by the rebels] was big,” army spokesman Colonel Longin Minani told IRIN on Thursday.

He said the rebels who had been fighting alongside Congolese Mayi- Mayi, warriors, Rwandan ex-FAR and the Interahamwe militia, fled their bases in the DRC due to intense fighting and crossed into Tanzania via Lake Tanganyika. “They are now infiltrating Burundi from Tanzania - killing and stealing - and then fleeing back into Tanzania with the loot,” Minani explained. “We think the local authorities and the administration are not cooperating to help us track down the rebels...We cannot pin it on the government.”

Makamba and Rutana are the most affected areas although he did not rule out infiltrations in other areas. Minani denied reports by news organisations that up to 10 soldiers were killed last week in fighting in Tenga. “It is not true,” he said. “There are some soldiers who died but they were few - not more than five.”