Curfew to remain “as precaution against attacks”

The Burundi army has claimed to have regained control of the capital, Bujumbura, after two weeks of heavy fighting between it and the rebel Forces nationales pour la liberation (FNL) but said would retain a curfew from 8 pm to 6 am (local time) “as precaution against further rebel attacks”, Radio Rwanda reported on Monday. The curfew imposed this stricter curfew on Bujumbura Mairie on 4 March (having previously had it from midnight to 6 am), which had helped quell the fighting in the capital, according to humanitarian sources. Journalists who visited Kinama, where the FNL had entrenched itself during its intense assault, said the homes of people displaced from the northern suburb had not been damaged, according to Burundi radio. Kinama church and market place, and one of the district health centres, had been destroyed - as a result of the FNL having established their rear base in this area, it quoted security sources as saying.

The fighting between the army and FNL forces has forced 56,000 persons from the Kinama and Kamenge suburbs to flee their homes, according to a UN press briefing on Friday. The displaced people were in urgent need of food aid but security conditions were preventing World Food Programme workers from helping them, it said.
The situation in Burundi was already critical because of a grave food crisis which had affected tens of thousands of people who were already weak from the drought and malaria, the report added.