Bujumbura | Wednesday
THE head of the UN World Health Organisation’s (WHO) operations in Burundi, Kassi Manlan of the Ivory Coast, was found dead in Bujumbura on Tuesday, police, one of his colleagues and other sources said. “Until proven otherwise, it is very likely that we are dealing with an act of banditry,” state prosecutor Gerard Ngendabanka told journalists. Manlan’s residential security guards have been taken in for questioning, he added. The body of Manlan (55) who had been reported missing earlier on Tuesday, was found at around 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, in the Circle Nautique, a sailing club mainly used by expatriates, said three of the club’s employees.
His face was bruised and one eye was covered in blood, they said.
UN Resident Representative Georg Charpentier confirmed the body was that of Manlan. One of the club employees, Azad Hussein, said rings were still on Manlan’s fingers when his body was found. After the WHO official was reported missing, bloodstains were found in his house, according to the gendarmerie and a diplomatic source. Speaking before news of Manlan’s death had broken, police spokesman Colonel Augustin Nzabampema said that the WHO official had left his home around 1:00 am and went to his office to pick up some papers, and then returned home. Citing the two security guards, the spokesman said Manlan went out again on foot around 5:00 am, wearing shorts and a tee-shirt. But a senior detective at the house said this version did not tally with the evidence. A civil war has raged in Burundi since 1993, pitting rebels from the Hutu majority against a largely Tutsi army. UN staff have not generally been targeted by rebels, who rarely venture into areas where expatriates live. In October 1999, two senior UN workers were executed by rebels of the Forces for the Defence of Democracy in Rutana province, which lies on the Tanzanian border. – AFP