Will al-Shabaab attack Burundi?

Burundi peacekeepers in Mogadishu providing fire support to soldiers of the Transitional Federal Government on February 24, 2011. FILE | AFRICA REVIEW |

Posted Sunday, March 20 2011 at 12:40

Burundians are living in perpetual fear of terrorist attacks from the Somali al-Shabab Islamists. The Islamists who are battling Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) have promised to hit Burundi because it it is part of the African Union’s Amisom peacekeeping contingent protecting the TFG.

Al-Shabab is known to implement its threats. It warned Uganda and Kenya and carried out its threats. Al-Shabab killed more than 70 people in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in July 2010. It was also behind the blowing up of a Ugandan coach bus in Nairobi in December 2010.

The Kampala and Nairobi terrorist incidents created extreme fear, and in some cases paranoia, in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura. Most Burundians believe their country is too weak to be able to prevent an al-Shabab onslaught. However the government is adamant that it is prepared to take on the Somali Islamists.

The fears have now gone a notch higher after Burundians saw bodies of their troops being exhibited in Mogadishu by the Islamists. “It reminds us of the bodies of American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu”, one Burundian wrote on the internet.

Burundi deployed its first troops in the Somali capital in 2007. Together with Uganda, they have to date deployed some 8,000 troops to Mogadishu to serve under the African Mission in Somalia, Amisom.

However a number of Burundian and Ugandan soldiers have been killed in Somalia, mostly in bomb explosions. The worst Burundian casualties occurred in February 2009, when an al-Shabab car bomb killed more than 10 Burundian soldiers, including the Force deputy commander.

The Islamists also killed another six Burundian soldiers and injured more than 10 when Somali government troops supported by Amisom peacekeepers got into another battle in Mogadishu.

Security alert

In view of the continuing arrival of body bags from Mogadishu, the Burundian opposition has called for the withdrawal of Burundian troops. However, the government has rejected the call saying that it wanted to repay the international community which sent troops to Burundi to help restore peace in the country.