Bujumbura — The police seized various weapons and military supplies in a cordon-search operation in Mutakura commune on Wednesday. The items the police seized include a rifle, a handmade pistol, boxes of bullets, military uniforms and camping bags. The police also arrested people suspected of being FNL combatants.

The police carried out a cordon-search operation in three quarters of Kinama commune last week. The police caught hundreds of people living illegally in this commune. The police did not diffuse the situation between the FNL combatants and former demobilised combatants. Sources say that the National Intelligence Services rearmed the former demobilised combatants who serve as informants in slums located in the outskirts of the Bujumbura.

Cordon-search operations come as part of the set of measures that the Interior Security Minister, Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, put forward last week in order to combat the growing trend of violence in Burundi. Many analysts think that the measures that the security minister devised are not sufficient since they did not include any plan for bringing to a close the final step of the peace process with last rebel movement, PALIPEHUTU-FNL, or disarming civilians

Despite the measures to end violence, people continue to die on a daily basis in many provinces. On Monday night, unidentified persons killed two people in Rusengo zone of Ruyigi province. During the same night, unidentified persons looted many households in Sanzu quarter of Ruyigi province.