Demonstrators marching in the capital under police protection told AFP they were “celebrating the victory of our valiant army over the enemy”.
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“Four of the 25 corpses were identified, but the others have not yet been identified”, said local administration sources in Nyakabiga zone.
Residents of the capital Bujumbura awoke on Saturday to find 34 dead bodies dumped in the streets, their wrists bound and bullet wounds to the heads.
As day broke, residents of the city cautiously ventured outside and said that they saw bodies lying in their residential neighborhoods.
One eyewitness told The Associated Press some of the victims had their hands tied behind their backs.
“They entered in our compounds, gathered all young and middle-aged men, took them and killed them away from their homes”, said one resident in Nyakabiga. “Residents believe these killings were a response to Friday’s attacks on the military”. Army soldiers, however, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that at least three soldiers were killed. Eighty-seven people were killed in the encounter between the military and the gunmen.
As sporadic gunfire continued around Bujumbura, a government spokesman claimed on Twitter that the attacks had been foiled. “There are dozens of bodies in other protest districts, such as Mutakura and Cibitoke, but the authorities are trying to make them disappear”, the diplomat said.
The United States said it is “deeply alarmed” by the violence in Bujumbura, said a statement released by John Kirby, a State Department spokesman.
Friday’s firefights are the heaviest since a failed coup in May, sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term, which he later won in disputed elections in July.
US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said that the Council was ready “to consider additional measures” against powerbrokers in the central African country who continue to block a political solution to the crisis.
The Security Council said that sending UN peacekeepers to the nation remained an option, and stressed the need for urgent political dialogue. The U.N. has spoken out through Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who stated that anyone who was found committing human rights violations will be held personally accountable. “Even now, security forces are collecting the bodies”.
Official figures from the United Nations state that 240 people have been killed in Burundi since April and more than 200,000 have been exiled to neighbouring countries.
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The first wave seemed to be government-sponsored killings of opposition members and civilians who were protesting Nkurunziza’s attempts to retain power as violating a peace agreement that limited him to two terms.
