Another 2,500 IDPs expected in Ruyigi

Aid workers say they are expecting another 2,500 displaced people on Friday in the besieged eastern Burundi town of Ruyigi, as rebels of the Forces pour la defense de la democratie scour the area looting and sometimes kidnapping school children.

"We don't know where they [the rebels] are going," a humanitarian worker said.

Most of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) expected in Ruyigi are fleeing Butezi, about 14 km to the northwest, where aid workers report the presence of "many rebels". An aid worker in Bujumbura told IRIN that 2,500 other IDPs arrived in the town on Thursday. Humanitarian aid workers in Ruyigi have provided blankets, soap and food.

Bands of between 20 to 30 rebels have been reportedly sighted in all communes in Ruyigi province. Aid officials and news reports speak of two school children and two teachers who escaped their captors on Thursday. AFP, quoting local officials, reported that the escapees came with the weapons the rebels forced them to carry when they and at least another 56 children and two teachers were kidnapped early this week from their primary school in Ruyigi.

There has been an upsurge in rebel activity in eastern and southern Burundi since the inauguration on 1 Nov. of a power-sharing government comprising the minority Tutsi and majority Hutu.