Horrified residents awoke Saturday to find at least 39 dead bodies scattered in the streets of the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, a day after coordinated armed assaults on three military installations.
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“The final toll of the attacks yesterday is 79 enemies killed, 45 captured and 97 weapons seized, and on our side eight soldiers and policemen were killed and 21 wounded”, said Colonel Gaspard Baratuza.
Anschaire Nikoyagize, the president of the Burundian League for Human Rights, told the DPA news agency that many of those killed had been detained in prisons for protesting against President Pierre Nkurunziza.
They buried the corpses in mass graves to “prevent the spread of disease” although some locals said the army was trying to hide evidence of the massacre.
Attacks on security forces have escalated with frequent ambushes of police convoys by rebels armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades and mortars aimed at government installations.
FILE – Residents look at the slain bodies of people killed at the Cibitoke district in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura, December 9, 2015.
In the Nyakabiga neighbourhood, residents said they woke up to the shocking scene of dead bodies sprawled out on the streets.
A climate of fear has engulfed Bujumbura after the sounds of battle could be heard throughout Friday and overnight.
An eyewitness said he counted 21 bodies with bullet wounds in their heads in Nyakabiga on Saturday morning. The hands of some of the dead were tied behind them, said the witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety.
After Friday’s attacks, “fighting continued into the night and the corpses found in these neighborhoods this morning are enemies”, Baratuza added.
In Nyakabiga, soldiers pursued some of the men who attacked military installations in Ngagara and Musaga neighborhoods, said Baratuza, the army’s spokesman.
In May, Nkurunziza held onto his office after a failed coup attempt by an army general while the President was in Tanzania.
Price said the United States may impose sanctions on others who block peace efforts or resort to violence. The U.S. called on neighboring countries to start urgent negotiations between Burundi’s government and the opposition to defuse the situation.
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At least 240 people have been killed since April and about 215,000 have fled to neighboring countries, according to the United Nations.
