https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/gunmen-kill-eight-ambush-passing-cars-burundi-2021-05-10/
Eight civilians were killed on a main road in Burundi yesterday, by a gang of armed robbers. Of the eight murdered while driving in their cars, one was a senior military officer. The attack occurred late on sunday night on the road connecting the commercial capital to the political capital, Bujumbura and Gitenga respectively. Along with the eight dead, others were injured and had their property stolen. An anonymous government official claimed that there were ten robbers present and that the attack was carried out with AK-47 automatic rifles along with grenades, while disguised in civilian clothing. These attacks have been common in the past few months with the attackers suspected of coming from the Congo. I am not all that surprised to hear about this attack on Burundi civilians. The recent project that my group and I did on the first and second Congolese wars gave a really sufficient background of the unrest that is still extremely prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa. Though the official wars are over, the Congo is still a breeding ground for violent groups and gangs. The lack of governmental stability along with the historically separate nation makes it the ideal place for the growth and maintenance of criminal activity. The area has greatly suffered as a direct result of the wars and instability as seen in the late 1900’s. The fact that the region is still being affected is not an unusual expectation, though peace talks did occur, it seems as though the nation remains relatively similar to its past stages. Therefore sponsoring negative activities for its neighboring countries like Burundi. I wholly doubt that this is the last attack of this nature that will occur as a result of groups from the Democratic Republic of Congo, it seems that the pattern of the violence from them rains on. There is no telling how much worse things are going to get before something drastic sparks any sort of change in the area.