/ 14 November 2001

100 CHILDREN ESCAPE REBEL KIDNAPPERS IN BURUNDI

ABOUT 100 children kidnapped by a rebel group in Burundi have managed to escape from their captors, one of the teenagers said on Saturday. “There was shooting between the army and the rebels, they told us to head east, and we took advantage of a moment of inattention to escape,” said Edmond Nsimirimana. Nsimirimana is one of between 250 and 300 high school pupils who were abducted last Friday from their school in the northeast of the central African country by rebels of the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD). – AFP