A rebel group has claimed a series of mortar attacks launched overnight on the airport of Bujumbura, Burundi’s economic capital, a day before President Evariste Ndayishimiye was due to fly out for the UN General Assembly in New York.
The attacks, which did not claim any victims or cause damage, were heard as far away as the city centre late on Saturday.
“We fired several shells towards the Bujumbura international airport,” RED-Tabara rebels said overnight on Twitter.
A diplomatic source, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the attack but said it was not disrupting air traffic on Sunday.
RED-Tabara, which has its rear base in South Kivu in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, emerged 10 years ago and is now the most active of Burundian rebel groups.
It is accused of being behind many deadly attacks or ambushes across the country since 2015.
In 2020, it claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in which it said more than 40 people were killed among security forces and the youth league of the ruling CNDD-FDD party.
