Rebels step up ambushes

Armed anti-government forces in Burundi have stepped up ambushes in the past week, particularly on the main roads in the west and south of the country, diplomatic and official sources told IRIN on Tuesday.

Army spokesman Colonel Augustin Nzabampema told IRIN rebels had at the weekend ambushed Gihanga, on the main road linking the capital, Bujumbura, and Cibitoke in the west. "It seems the driver managed to drive off, although the vehicle was damaged with gunshots," he said.

No deaths were reported in this incident.

However, a diplomatic said there had been two ambushes in Gihanga in the past few days with an unconfirmed number of deaths. "I heard that not more than three people died as a result of the ambushes in this area," he said.

There had been other ambushes on Sunday on public transport at Kabezi, south of the capital, along the road from Bujumbura to Rumonge, he added. Others had been carried out in Muhama and Gitanga in the south.

"The attacks have been quite frequent and by Friday operators of public transport threatened to stop plying the routes on the main roads in the absence of army patrols," he said. "The problem, however, is that most of these vehicles travel at wrong times - either too early or too late - when the army have either not arrived at the patrol points, or when those manning the points have been picked up for the day."

Nearly all the attacks or ambushes take place between 15:30 GMT and 17:00 GMT, or occasionally earlier than 08:00 GMT, he added, whereas the army goes on patrol from 08:00 to 15:00 GMT.

On Monday, Reuters quoted government officials as saying that 11 people, including a child and an elderly woman, had been killed in rebel road ambushes and in a clash between rebels and government troops near the capital, Bujumbura.

In one on the attacks, the rebels had opened fire on a minibus on Sunday on the road near Kabezi, south of Bujumbura, killing three civilians, the officials said.

"It was less than 24 hours after another attack on Gitaza (south of Bujumbura), when the rebels killed three, two of them civilians," Reuters quoted Balthazar Ntamahungiro, the governor of Bujumbura Rural Province, as saying.

It also reported local officials as saying that an army patrol shot and killed at least five alleged rebels in the same vicinity south of Bujumbura on Friday.