Burundi rebels admit onslaught

Burundi rebels admit onslaught

A Hutu rebel group in Burundi has said it was responsible for the mortar attacks outside the capital, Bujumbura, and two other cities on Thursday that left several civilians dead.

Although the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) was one of the groups that signed a peace accord with the government in December, they say they were simply defending themselves from attacks by the army.

Children are once again victims of the fighting

The FDD accuses the government of not abiding by the rules of the agreement, negotiated by South Africa.

The shelling caused thousands to flee their homes.

The BBC's correspondent in Burundi, Prime Ndikumagenge, who went to see some of the displaced in an area about 10km outside the capital on Friday, said there were more than 20,000 mainly women and children in that one small centre alone.

Flying rockets

The told him that they saw bombs and mortar shells flying over their heads and fled.

He told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the children were cold and shivering and their living conditions deplorable.

Rebels accuse the government of breaking peace agreement

He said although fighting has now died down, the displaced people do not know when they will return to their homes, and even when they do it is likely they would find their homes looted.

Thursday's attack marked a new escalation in the war between the mainly minority Tutsi army and majority armed Hutu rebel groups.

The heavy fighting which also took place in the second largest city, Gitega, left it without power and water and damaged the main brewery.

The fighting is a setback to hopes that an agreed ceasefire with rebels may stick, ahead of the deployment of an African Union peacekeeping force at the end of the month.

Burundi army spokesman, Colonel Augustin Nzabampema, told reporters that the army had fought back using their own artillery and the air force to repel the attack.

A helicopter gunship had been seen shelling the area were the rebels were supposedly firing from.

More than 300,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in the nine-year civil war in Burundi.

The current Tutsi president is due to hand over to his Hutu deputy in a power-sharing arrangement on 1 May.