Nearly 90 people were killed during clashes on Friday in the Burundian capital, the army said on Saturday, the worst outbreak of violence in Burundi since a failed coup in May.
Blasts and gunfire echoed around Bujumbura for most of Friday.
Residents said officials spent the day collecting bullet-riddled bodies from city streets.
Photo: Reuters
There was no fighting overnight and the capital’s streets were calm on Saturday.
Burundian army spokesman Gaspard Baratuza said gunmen had attacked three military sites in Bujumbura, kindling a day of clashes across the city.
He said 79 attackers were killed and 45 others captured.
Four police officers and four soldiers also died, he said.
“Sweep operations have finished now,” Baratuza said, adding that officials had confiscated weapons and ammunition.
Unrest in Burundi, which started in April when Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza announced plans for a third term in office, has unnerved a region still volatile two decades after the genocide in neighboring Rwanda.
Friday’s clashes were condemned by the US, which like other Western powers fears that the Central African nation could slide back into ethnic conflict.
The UN Security Council was briefed on the developments in Burundi late on Friday. US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, who is president of the council for this month, said the 15-member body was ready to consider “further steps.”
The police did not identify the gunmen.
One of the generals behind the failed coup attempt said afterward that his rebel group still aimed to topple the president.
Residents said some of Friday’s dead were killed after being rounded up by the police in house-to-house searches, an allegation the police denied.
According to witnesses and pictures circulated on social media, some bodies had their hands tied behind their backs.
“They entered in our compounds, gathered all young and middle-aged men, took them and killed them away from their homes,” one resident in Nyakabiga said.
Police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye said there were “no collateral victims” during Friday clashes.
Baratuza said some attackers who attempted to raid the Ngagara military camp retreated and were pursued by security forces who “inflicted on them considerable losses.”
Kenya Airways, which canceled flights to Burundi on Friday, yesterday said it would resume flying to Bujumbura.
Until now, battle lines in Burundi’s crisis have followed the political divide.
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