Almost 90 people were killed during Friday’s clashes in the Burundian capital, the army said on Saturday, the worst outbreak of violence in Burundi since a failed coup in May. Some of the victims were shot on their heads.
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The violence began with coordinated attacks by unidentified gunmen on three military installations, which triggered a fierce riposte from the security forces.
Burundi army spokesperson Colonel Gaspard Baratuza has confirmed the latest death toll and said dozens of others are injured in the skirmishes.
A senior police official in the flashpoint Nyakabiga district said there were 20 young men killed in the neighbourhood, and a Reuters witness saw at least 16 bullet-ridden bodies in the same area.
Baratuza said some attackers who attempted to raid the Ngagara military camp retreated and were pursued by security forces who “inflicted on them considerable losses”.
After Friday’s attacks, “fighting continued into the night and the corpses found in these neighborhoods this morning are enemies”, Baratuza added. Residents hid in their houses leaving only security personnel patrolling the streets.
Months of street protests against Nkurunziza have devolved into frequent armed attacks, with gunfire regularly erupting at night in Bujumbura and dead bodies a frequent sight on the city’s streets.
France also condemned the attacks and called on all parties in Burundi to choose dialogue and not violence to find an exit to the crisis, the French Foreign Ministry said.
The UN chief urged all sides including the government “to refrain from any further escalation of violence or retaliation” his spokesman said warning that anyone ‘responsible for ordering or committing human rights violations will be held individually accountable’.
Unrest in Burundi, which started in April when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced plans for a third term in office, has unnerved a region still volatile two decades after the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.
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Since May at least 240 people have been killed and more than 200000 have fled for neighboring countries United Nations figures show. One of the generals behind the failed coup attempt said afterwards that his rebel group still aimed to topple the president.
