Burundi Army Blamed for 250 Hutu Deaths
More than 250 Hutus in northern Burundi were killed in a raid last weekend that appears to have been the work of Burundian government soldiers, a senior government official said Wednesday.
The attackers struck near the northern town of Ngozi. Most of the dead were villagers.
“We have information from the governor that 252 people were killed. We don’t have details, but it appears it was the military,” presidential Cabinet chief Mames Bansubiyeko said by telephone from Burundi.
Aid workers of Western relief agencies in Ngozi said by telephone that more than 140 people had died and that the toll could go up to 200.
The raid appeared to be in retaliation for attacks carried out by rebels of the Hutu majority on the Tutsi minority.
Burundian army spokesman Lt. Col. Longin Minani denied reports of killings in Ngozi when contacted earlier this week.
Tens of thousands of people have died in two years of conflict between the mainly Tutsi army and rebels of the Hutu majority.
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