Army general shot dead in Burundi capital

BUJUMBURA, Burundi

Gunmen shot dead a serving Burundian army general and seriously wounded his child in the Burundi capital Bunjumbura Monday morning as the country continues to reel under its year-long security and political crises.

According to Bujumbura Mayor Freddy Mbonimpa, six unidentified gunmen were said to be involved in the killing of General Athanase Kararuza, who targeted him in the city’s Mutanga district.

The general’s seriously-injured child was immediately rushed to Bujumbura military hospital, Mbonimpa added.

Kararuza was the seventh highest-ranking army officer to be assassinated in less than a year in the country.

Last Thursday, Emmanuel Buzubona, a colonel of the Burundian army, gunmen also killed in northern Bujumbura.

On Sunday, a grenade attack on Martin Nivyabandi, Burundian minister of human rights, left his wife seriously injured, while a civilian also got killed.

Later on the same day, a high-ranking police officer and his wife were injured in an armed attack; later his wife succumbed to her wounds.

Burundi’s fragile political dialogue is set to resume on May 2 in the Tanzanian city of Arusha, former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa announced Sunday.

Burundi’s security and political crisis started on April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his candidacy for a third term. Since then, more than 400 people have been killed and at least 230,000 have fled the country to seek refuge in neighboring states within the East African region.

The worst of the violence occurred on Dec. 11 when 87 people were killed in clashes in Bujumbura.