Pre-talks clashes have become a trend, humanitarian official says

Fighting flared up again this week between the Burundi military and armed rebels in Bujumbura Rural province. “Up to this morning we heard some shooting from our house,” a humanitarian worker who lives in Bujumbura told IRIN today (Friday). Other volatile provinces, he said, include Makamba and Bururi. “Although Bubanza has been relatively quiet recently, the southern part of the province is very volatile, with shooting day and night,” the source added. According to the humanitarian worker, the fighting in Burundi tends to escalate just before each round of peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania. This trend is possibly because the main armed rebel group, the CNDD/FDD - which is not involved in the peace talks - uses the attacks as a means of putting pressure on the government, he explained. The next round of talks in Arusha is due to start on 8 March.