Cibitoke : four people killed including a soldier in Kibira

Three civilians and a Burundian soldier were found dead by forest rangers, while two others are missing in the Kibira natural reserve in Nderama village in the Ndora zone in Bukinanyana district, Cibitoke province, in northwestern Burundi. This macabre discovery took place on the night of July 23 to 24. Circumstances of their death are not yet known. Inhabitants of this locality say that these men were killed following a case of cows coming from neighboring Rwanda. Administration and police and security forces confirm this information and indicate that the four people were murdered by bandits.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The four people found dead are three butchers and a soldier of the FDNB*, killed in the night of July 23 to 24 in the heart of the natural forest of Kibira.

According to police sources, the deceased were bringing eight cows clandestinely from Rwanda to sell them the next day at the Ndora market.

According to the same sources, these people used to cross the Kibira during the night towards Rwanda in search of cows. They were killed on their return in an ambush set by a group of heavily armed Kinyarwanda-speaking men based in this forest.

As these sources always indicate, “all eight cows were subsequently recovered by this armed group. The people killed were identified because they were all from the Bukinanyana district”.

Despite the closure of borders, movements between the two countries are observed, as another military source points out.

The latter also suggests that this ban on preventing border residents from traveling to one or the other country explains the refusal imposed by administration authorities to mourn members and relatives of the missing.

This irritates contacted residents who were not allowed to mourn their loved ones.

According to our sources, two other people are still being sought.

“They are said to have gotten lost in the middle of Kibira or to have also been killed”, insists a security source.

Families of the deceased are asking for light on these assassinations. The administrator of Bukinanyana, says that investigations are underway to determine circumstances of these murders.

Christian Nkurikiye warns anyone who engages in clandestine cow trade at a time when land borders are closed between Burundi and Rwanda.

As for the commander-in-chief of military operations in Kibira, he confirms that one of his men is missing before indicating that he died after deserting his post.

This Burundian army officer threatens to apply military regulations and punish any soldier assigned to Kibira who does not properly carry out the mission to which he is assigned.

Since the beginning of this year, 25 bodies, including 8 identified as corpses of cow traders, have been recovered in Kibira.

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Part of Kibira in northwestern Burundi (SOS Médias Burundi)