20110919
Reuters
BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - Gunmen in Burundi killed at least 21 people when they stormed a bar outside the capital, Bujumbura, late on Sunday, in the deadliest attack in the central African country this year.

Burundi has enjoyed relative peace since the former Hutu hardline rebel Forces for National Liberation (FNL) laid down their weapons and joined the government in 2009 after two decades of insurgency.

But attacks against civilians and soldiers have escalated in recent months and there are growing fears of a new rebellion in the coffee-producing nation of 8 million people. Authorities blame bandits for the attacks.

Local resident Sake Matthieu said that in the latest attack a group of armed men burst into the drinking den and sprayed bullets at a crowd of revelers who were drinking and dancing.

"I myself counted 21 people who died on the spot," said Matthieu, who also heads a human rights body.

Matthieu said he had heard another nine people had died in hospital from their wounds.

Other residents in the town of Gatumba, about 16 km (10 miles) west of the capital, confirmed the attack.

Early this month, a Burundian rights watchdog (APRODH) said it had documented 125 extra-judicial killings between May and August that mostly targeted former Hutu rebels in the country recovering from civil war.

Former FNL boss Agathon Rwasa, who went into hiding last year after boycotting a presidential election, accused the government last week of a campaign to wipe out his supporters.