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Police in Burundi said an army captain and a police brigadier who defected from the security forces have been killed in a gunfight with security forces in the capital.
Police spokesperson Pierre Nkurikiye said Captain Idi Omar Bahenda and Brigadier Jean Claude Niyongabo were killed in in the Kiyenzi zone of Bujumbura on Wednesday. Bahenda had been wanted for recruiting rebels opposed to President Pierre Nkurunziza, Nkurikiye said.
The president’s decision to seek re-election last year has left the country on the brink of civil war.
Nkurikiye said the men, along with another ‘renegade’ policeman who is now in custody, were travelling in a car in which police found explosives, a rocket-propelled grenade and a rifle.
