More than 160 Tutsi Congolese refugees massacred at a border camp were buried on Monday, as the African Union said it was sending a team to Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to investigate the deaths.
Nigeria’s president, Olusegun Obasanjo, chairperson of the 53-member AU, on Monday denounced the attack, which took place on Friday, by extremist Hutus.
Most of the victims of the weekend killings were women, children and babies, shot dead and burned in their shelters at the Gatumba refugee camp.
The massacre has raised the spectre of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, when majority Hutus slaughtered more than 800 000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates.
Burundi closed its border with the DRC on Sunday. A Burundian army spokesperson, Adolphe Manirakiza, said the government had also increased security along the frontier and around refugee camps to prevent more violence.
Burundi’s rebel Hutu Forces for National Liberation claimed responsibility for the killings, but officials suspect Hutu extremists from the DRC and Rwanda. Survivors said the attackers came from the DRC border and returned to that area.
Gatumba camp is about 16km north-west of Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, near the border with the DRC. Up to 20 000 Congolese Tutsi refugees have taken shelter in United Nations camps in Burundi after fleeing the eastern DRC because they were terrified of being targeted by government troops, local militia and civilians there. – Guardian Unlimited Â