BREAKING NEWS

Family of three killed in grenade attack in Burundi crisis

BUJUMBURA - A former army officer and his family were killed in a grenade attack on their home in Burundi, a government official said on Thursday, the latest episode in political violence that has plagued the central African country for more than a year.
Burundi's crisis has broadly followed political lines, but experts fear the violence could revive ethnic rivalries in a nation torn apart by a 12-year civil war pitting Hutu rebels against a Tutsi-led army that only ended in 2005.
Dismas Bashirahishize, a pro-government former officer, and his wife and child were killed when a grenade was hurled into their house on Wednesday, the governor of Bururi province in the south of Burundi, Christian Nkurunziza, told Reuters.
Local residents said it may have been staged because of Bashirahishize's links to the government. "It was believed he was revealing names of political opponents to the police and administration to be arrested and tortured," said one resident, who asked not to be named.