Four wounded in mortar attacks in Bujumbura suburbs

Four people, including two children, were wounded on Monday when rebels fired mortar bombs into two residential areas in the suburbs of the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, sources in the capital confirmed to IRIN.

News organisations reported that successive mortar explosions were heard on Monday afternoon in the north and south of Mutanga, around the capital.

"It is true that one of the adults injured during the attack is an employee of the World Food Programme [WFP]," an official from the agency told IRIN on Tuesday. "The injury was not very serious," he said, adding that the official had been at home at the time of the attack.

The local Burundi news agency Net Press reported on Monday that a WFP official, Aime-Pacifique Nyenimana, was slightly wounded in the attack, which took place at Mutanga South Municipal College.

"The attacks were carried out by a small group of rebels who threw some three mortar bombs at the population," the army spokesman, Augustin Nzabampema, told IRIN on Tuesday. "Although their motive was not clear, it is quite likely that they wanted to kill and also create fear among the population," he added. He said fighting had been in progress around Isale in Bujumbura Rural Province since last week.

Despite the installation of a transitional government in November last year, fighting has continued in various parts of the country. The latest round of fighting resumed on 11 March and has caused the temporary displacement of thousands of people.