Burundi Toll May Top That of ’72 Massacre
The death toll in tribal massacres sweeping Burundi may top that of a 1972 genocide in which 150,000 people died, a government minister from the central African nation said Friday.
Foreign Minister Paul Munyembari said anarchy prevailed in the country a month after soldiers murdered President Melchior Ndadaye in a coup that later collapsed.
Ndadaye, 40, was the first elected president of Burundi and the first president from the Hutu tribe.
“The army still roams the countryside. Two days ago soldiers killed a governor and 15 people in northern Burundi. Killings are still going on,” he told a news conference.
Relief workers say thousands of people were killed in the fighting, which broke out between Hutus and Tutsis after the coup failed.
U.N. refugee officials said Thursday that more than 100 Burundian refugees are dying of disease and malnutrition each day in crowded camps in Rwanda.
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