The Defence Ministry has said it is aware of at least three active
armed groups, although officials deny they pose any real threat.
Senior Burundi officer missing from post, officers say he fled(Politico)
A senior Burundi
army officer involved in intelligence has been missing from his post
since the weekend and fellow officers said he had gone into hiding, the
latest in a growing list of senior officers who have fled a nation where
rebel groups have emerged.
Violence erupted in Burundi in April last year when President Pierre Nkurunziza
announced his bid for a third term, which was opposed by a host of
activists, opposition politicians and some military officers who staged a
failed coup in May.
Officers behind that coup have said they would pursue an armed struggle until Nkurunziza quits.
The
Defence Ministry has said it is aware of at least three active armed
groups, although officials deny they pose any real threat.
It
is not immediately clear how many fleeing officers have joined rebels
groups, but hollowing out the army's senior ranks risks leaving a more
partisan military that till now has kept broad public respect in an
increasingly polarised nation.
Western diplomats
fear the tiny nation could slide back into ethnic conflict, like the
1993-2005 civil war, which pitted what was then a Tutsi-led army against
Hutu rebel groups. After a peace deal, rebel fighters were absorbed
into the army.
Lieutenant Colonel Alexandre Mbazumutima,
a Tutsi in charge of intelligence services at a military camp about 40
km east of Bujumbura, went missing at the weekend. He had been
questioned after the May coup but was not arrested or taken to court.
"He hasn’t yet showed up for work since last Sunday but I don’t know where he is now," army spokesman Gaspard Baratuza said, adding he would be declared a deserter after eight days.
A
fellow senior officer, asking not to be named, said he believed
Mbazumutima had fled after facing threats, including an attack by
unidentified men at his home. "Probably he left the army in a bid to find a safe place," he told Reuters.
Several other military sources, who also declined to be named, also said Mbazumutima had fled but offered few details.
One
of Burundi's rebel groups that emerged late last year, FOREBU, says it
is led by the leader of the May coup attempt although Major-General
Godefroid Niyombare has made no public declaration since the failed
putsch.
Two other groups have emerged, including
RED TABARA which has claimed responsibility for several attacks on
officials in the capital. The government also says there are rebels
affiliated to FNL, a political party that denied any links.
The
diplomats say divisions in Burundi have till now run broadly along
political rather than ethnic lines. But tit-for-tat killings have
sometimes appeared to target members of particular ethnic groups,
raising fears old wounds will reopen.
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