Alleged perpetrator of Burundi massacre shot dead

Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - Carmel Mukono, one of the alleged perpetrators of the killing of at least 39 people in November 2011 in Gatumba, a tourist city on the outskirts of Bujumbura, was shot dead in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) overnight Thursday, PANA learnt from security sources in the Burundian capital.

According to Col. Kabisa Domitian, Commander of the 1st Military Region of the National Defence Force and Veterans (FDN), which operates near the border with DRC, the fugitive was killed when he and his armed gang tried to lay an ambush along a road in eastern DRC.

Mukono’s corpse was handed over to Burundian soldiers by their Congolese counterparts and has been deposited at the morgue of a hospital in Bujumbura, according to the same source.

The announcement of the killing brought relief to residents of the border communities, who have been subjected to acts of robbery and rape by the Mukono gang.

Twenty other alleged accomplices in the massacre were arrested and later tried and sentenced to long prison terms.
-0- PANA FB/JSG/JEN 4May2012