Fighting between Burundi’s army and the Central African country’s last active rebel group, which broke out just a day after both sides agreed to stop attacking each other, ended overnight, rebel and army sources said on Friday.
The clash, which flared up near the capital at about 1pm local time on Thursday, ended about six hours later, they said.
Both sides had accused the other of starting the fighting, which erupted less than 24 hours after the rebel National Liberation Forces (FNL) made a surprise announcement that it would no longer mount unprovoked attacks on the army.
The government and army immediately welcomed the move and matched the rebels’ promise.
On Friday, FNL spokesperson Pasteur Habimana said the movement’s leader, Agathon Rwasa, is ”a man of his word. He declared an end to hostilities and cannot go back on his word.”
”We ask our Tutsi brothers not to look for excuses to fight, but to welcome the peace we are offering,” he said.
The FNL is drawn from Burundi’s large Hutu majority while the army has traditionally been dominated by the Tutsi minority, although an ongoing reconciliation process is balancing the ethnic composition of the armed forces.
Army spokesperson Major Adolphe Manirakiza on Friday reiterated the government’s pledge ”to respect the halt of hostilities called by the FNL”.
”The army will not attack,” he said.
No details of casualties from Thursday’s fighting were available on Friday, nor was any detailed explanation of why the truce was broken.
Since a variety of armed Hutu groups rose up in 1993, more than 300 000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Burundi.
All the other rebel groups involved in the war have reached peace agreements with the government. — Sapa-AFP