Soldiers in Burundi Coup Start to Flee
Rebel soldiers fearing a backlash against a collapsing military coup were fleeing Burundi on Sunday, and an international aid worker reported rival tribes battling each other with machetes.
“It is a mess. The war is going on with machetes. The country is set on fire. It’s burning,” said Herve Leguillouzic, a doctor with the International Committee of the Red Cross, who earlier flew over the central African state.
Leguillouzic said he counted the bodies of 25 schoolchildren who had been burned alive in a locked room in the village of Kibimba, east of the capital Bujumbura.
They were probably from the minority Tutsi tribe, he said. The Tutsi dominate the Burundian army, which overthrew and killed President Melchior Ndadaye on Thursday.
State radio, in army hands, confirmed that Ndadaye, the country’s first democratically elected president, was killed during the coup after just three months in power.
The United States, meanwhile, warned the coup leaders that it was holding them responsible for the safety of all prisoners and U.S. residents.
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