2,000 displaced as rebels step up attacks

Some 2,000 internally displaced people in the northeastern Burundian town of Canzkuzo are desperately seeking a safe haven as unidentified rebels prowl around the vicinity, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Wednesday.

Rebels have stepped up their attacks in the east of the country near Tanzania since the inauguration of a power-sharing government in Bujumbura on 1 Nov. On Tuesday, rebels kidnapped an unknown number of school children and teachers from a primary school in Mukundanya, 7 km from the eastern town of Ruyigi, also close to Tanzania.

"The younger children, about 200 of them, are displaced in Ruyigi," a humanitarian source told IRIN. The children are between six and eight years old.

The source added that UNICEF would send teams to the town on Wednesday for an assessment of the situation.

Meanwhile, in the southern province of Bururi, 300 members of the pro-Hutu Forces for the Defence of Democracy killed 19 civilians during a four-hour attack on a small military post at Munini, 149 km southeast of Bujumbura, AFP reported citing provincial governor Andre Ndayizamba.

"The rebels burnt the health center, the administrator's office and several shops after looting them," he said.

Fighting between rebels and the army has been taking place in Maramvya, Bujumbura Rurale province, since 30 Oct., humanitarian sources said, adding that displaced populations were present in Mubone (Bujumbura town), Rukaramu (Bujumbura Rurale) and Mpanda (Bubanza province.

"We don't know, and the authorities don't know either, how many people are displaced," the source said.