More than 50 killed in Burundi fighting

January 12, 1998
Web posted at: 11:45 a.m. EST (1645 GMT)

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (CNN) -- Fighting between Burundi's Tutsi-led army and Hutu rebels lasted well into Monday after a weekend battle near the capital killed more than 50 people, an army spokesman said.

Government forces used helicopter gunships and an aircraft fitted with rockets to fire at rebel positions in the hills about 20 miles (30 km) northeast of the capital on Sunday, killing 53 rebels and losing two government soldiers, Col. Isaie Nibizi said Monday.

There was no independent confirmation of the government claim. Opposition leaders have accused the government of hiding the army's true losses.

Another army spokesman said that the military had been alerted by residents about the rebel presence in the area.

"The population informed us that rebels were collecting in the mountains surrounding Bujumbura, so the army went and made contact," the spokesman said.

Nibizi said the rebels were part of the same group that had attacked the capital's airport and a nearby village this month, killing nearly 300 people.

But the rebels' political wing, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy, in turn accused the army of killing the mostly Hutu villagers.

The fighting was the latest in a renewed Hutu insurgency against the Tutsi-dominated armies of Burundi and Rwanda and their allies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire.

Regional analysts say that Hutu rebels in Burundi, Rwanda and the former Zaire are increasingly coordinating strategy in their cross-border attacks.

Rwanda's vice president, Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame, discussed the upsurge of fighting in the three countries with Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on the weekend, African diplomats said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related sites:

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• Burundi page - Univ. of Pennsylvania Dept of African Studies
• Burundi Country Profile - U.S. Agency for International Development

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