Another army officer killed in Burundi
A second senior Burundian army officer has been shot dead in the capital Bujumbura in less than 24 hours.
|||Bujumbura – A second senior Burundian army officer has been shot dead in the capital Bujumbura.
Major Didier Muhimpundu, received a call on Tuesday night from persons who pretended to be his friend when he was in a bar having a drink in capital Bujumbura, military officials told ANA.
They asked him to meet them outside the bar. When he emerged he was hit by bullets. One official said two staff officers and a non-commissioned officer had been held for questioning.
Earlier Tuesday Lt. Col. Darius Ikurakure, believed to be close to President Pierre Nkurunziza, was shot by a fellow soldier inside army headquarters. His killer escaped.
Ikurakure was suspected by the political opposition and some civil society members of complicity in deaths and disappearances of opposition figures during the almost year-long political crisis in Burundi.
Several assassinations or attempted assassinations of senior military figures since the crisis began – as well as an attempted military coup in May last year – point to sharp tensions in the military.
On Friday November 9, 2015, the current head of Burundi’s armed forces, General Prime Niyongabo, escaped an assassination attempt in Bujumbura.
On August 13 last year, former army Chief Jean Bikomagu was gunned down by unknown persons outside his home after returning from church.
Ten days earlier, General Adolph Nshimirimana was killed by a group of soldiers in the capital Bujumbura. He was regarded as very close to Nkurunziza, having served with him in the CNDD-FDD Hutu armed rebellion against the previous Tutsi government.
Nkurunziza’s insistence on running for a third term last year – despite the two-term limits in the constitution and the Arusha peace accords – has plunged Burundi into a deep crisis.
Over 400 people have been killed and more than 250 000 people have fled to neighbouring countries, mainly Tanzania and Rwanda, fearing the wider violence which the country has experienced in the past.
A peace initiative by the East African Community, backed by the African Union, has so far not been able to end the crisis.
African News Agency
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