Military says security situation improving

The army spokesman, Col Augustin Nzabampema, said on Tuesday that the security situation is continuing to improve nationwide, although Hutu rebels are still active in the provinces of Gitega, Muramvya and Bumumbura Rurale. Between 100 and 150 rebels had attacked Gitega, the country's second-largest city, on 22 and 23 July, killing two people, Net Press quoted him as saying. The rebels had also burnt five vehicles and a home, and looted 30 shops before army troops arrived and forced them to withdraw. The rebels, he added, had been bent on destroying personal and public property, and infrastructure such as health centres and coffee factories. In Muramvya Province, northeast of the capital, Bujumbura, fighting has been limited to the communes of Rutegama and Kiganda. Government troops have temporarily relocated residents, who have been unable to reach their homes, on nearby hills. In Bujumbura Rurale, the area immediately around Bujumbura, rebels burnt down 12 homes in the locality of Kayoyo. However, Nzabampema said, security was good in other provinces, although the army had noticed a rise in armed robberies. These reports of rebel activity have failed to deter Burundian refugees returning home from Tanzania, according to the state-owned Agence Burundaise de Presse. It quoted the Ministry of Reintegration and Resettlement of Displaced People and Returnees as saying 1,162 refugees had returned home on 16 and 18 July, through the Kobero border post in the northeastern province of Muyinga. Despite the military’s optimistic outlook, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reminded the NGO community that the “deteriorating security situation in the eastern and southern provinces” necessitated contingency planning, especially when NGO personnel became trapped in areas where no escape routes remained available and where airfields were closed, as had been the case in Ruyigi the week before OCHA’s 15-21 situation report. “The UN security cell will not be in a position to extract NGOs or any personnel in such situation,” OCHA reported. “It was strongly advised that NGOs take preventive measure, such as having sand or earth bags and some tools to dig holes or trenches.”