Gunmen wearing police and army uniforms killed three people and injured three others at a bar in a heavily guarded neighbourhood of Burundi’s biggest city Bujumbura, police and residents said.
The attack was in Rohero district, where violence is rare and officials have the protection of their own security personnel.
“Unidentified evildoers armed with AK 47s attacked peaceful people having a drink at a bar, leaving three dead and three injured people,” Moïse Nkurunziza, deputy police spokesman, said, adding the attackers detonated a grenade.
A soldier assigned as a security guard for a senior official near the attack scene said police carried out a search operation on Saturday but made no arrests.
Burundi moved its capital from Bujumbura, a port on Lake Tanganyika, to the much smaller central city Gitega last year.
In September, the United Nations said Burundi was at risk of a new wave of violence as it approaches an election next year with an unresolved political crisis and President Pierre Nkurunziza increasingly portrayed as a “divine” ruler. Government said the report did not reflect reality.
Hundreds of Burundians died in clashes with security forces since 2015, when Nkurunziza ran for a third, disputed term in office. Over the same period, more than 400 000 people fled, predominantly to Tanzania, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.
On October 22, police said security forces killed at least 14 armed men planning to launch an attack in Bubanza province after entering from Democratic Republic of Congo.
