Burundi: 30,000 flee fighting in capital

formerly BURUNDI FIGHTING The former South African president, Nelson Mandela, has called on Burundian refugees in Tanzania to prepare to go home.

Speaking at the Lukole refugee camp, he said that progress was being made on bringing peace to Burundi.

And he warned Hutu rebels who recently launched an attack on the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, that their actions were indefensible, and a day of reckoning was coming.

Hundreds of thousands of Burundians, mainly Hutus, have been living in Tanzania since civil war broke out in 1993.

Mr Mandela visited the camp on the day after the latest round of peace talks, at which he is official mediator. In the latest fighting, thirty-thousand people fled from the suburb of Kinama, after what correspondents say was the most serious fighting in the city for five years.

Reports say the army has recaptured most of the area.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service