Governor of Bubanza Province shot dead in ambush

Gunmen in Burundi's Bubanza Province shot dead Governor Isaie Bigirimana on Sunday at Gihanga, about 20 km north of the capital, Bujumbura.

Bigirimana was travelling by car from Bubanza to Bujumbura with a police officer and another aide when they were ambushed by men believed to be members of Agathon Rwasa’s Forces nationales de liberation {National Liberation Forces - FNL–Palipehutu).

Burundi army spokesman Maj Adolphe Manirakiza told IRIN on Monday that the police officer was also killed. The aide who escaped said the attackers ordered them out of the car and then shot the other two dead.

"The governor's vehicle was ambushed at Tranversal 7 [a road leading to Bubanza] near the Rukoko Forest Reserve, the FNL stronghold, at 5:15 p.m. and by that time, the security forces and former CNDD-FDD combatants [the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie] had left their respective positions," Manirakiza said.

Manirakiza said earlier on Sunday, two Members of Parliament and a senator were also attacked and robbed. The attackers, he said, also seized military uniforms and guns from two South African security guards who were accompanying them.

The FNL-Palipehutu denied involvement in Bigirimana's death. FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told IRIN Monday the group was often accused of killings, when in fact they were committed by the army and the CNDD-FDD.

"Our presence in Rukoko does not prove we are responsible for the killings," Habimana said.

He added that the FNL had nothing against the governor. "Isaie Bigirimana comes from the Inkizo Party and its leader [Alphonse Rugambarara] has proven more than once to be our friend," Habimana said.

Habimana blamed the governor's death on armed groups in the area. The groups, he said, disagreed with the governor and there was evidence of this in letters he wrote to the Ministry of the Interior.

Bigirimana, a native of Bubanza, had been appointed to his position three years ago during the first transitional rule under President Pierre Buyoya.

The FNL-Palipehutu remains the only armed movement still active in Burundi after 11 years of war. All other former armed
movements, the strongest of them being Pierre Nkurunziza's faction of the CNDD-FDD, have signed peace accords with the transitional government and, last week, registered as political parties.