Paramilitaries backing army in troubled areas

There were now some 2,500 armed civilians supporting the army in areas of insecurity, particularly in the south of the country, as part of a government policy of civilian self-defence, AFP reported on Sunday. These recruits - dubbed ‘guardians of the peace’ by the Burundian authorities - were often repentant rebels, and they were now “in all the communes affected by insecurity,” it quoted the governor of Makamba, Colonel Gabriel Gunungu, as saying. Armed with rifles, these paramilitaries backed up the army in surveillance missions and in protecting roads or civilian regroupment camps, AFP quoted a senior army officer as saying.

The training of these civilians had been interrupted when insecurity erupted all along the border with Tanzania in December but would soon come back into force, the report stated. However, some observers had pointed to the danger of arming yet more people in Burundi and wondered who was going to disarm the civilians so they did not constitute a threat to any peace deal between the government and rebel groups, it added.