A security advisor to the Burundian Vice President, Gaston Sindimwo, was shot dead Monday.
Col. Gaspard Baratuza, Military Spokesman, said in Bujumbura that Brig.-Gen. Athanase Kararuza and his wife were killed by unidentified gunmen, who ambushed them in the north of the capital, Bujumbura.
He said Kararuza worked as a security advisor to Vice President Gaston Sindimwo.
He had recently served as a deputy commander for the UN mission in the Central African Republic.
Kararuza is the fifth senior army officer to be killed over the past five weeks.
Another army source said on condition of anonymity that Kararuza’s daughter and bodyguard were also killed.
Meanwhile, another report disclosed that the wife of a police officer was killed in a grenade attack which was believed to have targeted her husband late Sunday in their Bujumbura home.
The police said the leg of the husband, who was identified as Donatien Ndabigeze, had to be amputated.
It said the killings followed a grenade attack on Sunday on Human Rights Minister, Martin Nivyabandi, as he was leaving church in Bujumbura.
“The minister’s wife and four other people were reported to have been injured.’’
United Nations said Burundi has been in turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced a year ago that he would seek a third term in office, despite a constitutional two-term limit.
He won the election in July.
It said more than 400 people are estimated to have been killed in protests, police repression and attacks by armed groups, and more than 250,000 have fled abroad.
(dpa/NAN)