Burundi Clashes Continue; 7 Die in Firefights
Clashes between troops and gunmen in Burundi’s capital resumed for a second straight day Wednesday. Sources said five gunmen and two soldiers were killed.
Witnesses said shooting with automatic weapons in the northern suburb of Kamenge, which broke out Monday night and continued until midnight Tuesday, resumed at dawn Wednesday.
Military sources said gunmen attacked troops at Nyabiraba, 11 miles from Bujumbura, and five attackers were killed.
A Western diplomat said two soldiers died in firefights. The diplomat asked not to be identified.
Burundi has the same ethnic makeup as neighboring Rwanda, where more than half a million people, mostly minority Tutsis, have died since April in tribal massacres blamed largely on Hutus.
The Rwanda blood bath was ignited by a rocket attack that killed the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, both Hutus, as the plane carrying them flew into the Rwandan capital April 6.
Ethnic tensions in Burundi have been stoked by the arrival of 200,000 Rwandan refugees--both Hutus and Tutsis--fleeing the massacres or civil war.
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