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Burundi violence festers, army officer, 3 others killed

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The festering crisis in Burundi has claimed the life of an army officer, a motorcyclist and two members of an armed group in separate incidents in the capital city of Bujumbura.

The incidents are coming a day after the latest round of violence to hit the country which has suffered a year-long crisis since tit-for-tat killings by supporters of President Pierre Nkurunziza and his political opponents have become the order of the day.

According to Moise Nkurunziza, deputy police spokesman, in one of the incident, gunmen ambushed Colonel Emmanuel Buzubona as he traveled on the back of a motorbike to his home in Bujumbura, the capital, on Wednesday.

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“The senior officer tried to flee but he didn’t make it because the attackers finished him off by throwing a grenade,” Nkurunziza told Reutershe said. The motorcyclist also died.

Such occurrences have raised concerns that Burundi could slide back into conflict, after the country emerged from an ethnically fueled civil war in 2005.

More than 400 people have been killed since Nkurunziza said he would run for a third term last year. Opponents said he was violating the constitution and a peace deal that ended the civil war. A court ruled he could run, and he won re-election in July.

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