According to the incident’s first version, armed men besieged vehicles traveling towards Bujumbura, the former capital and the most populated city in the country, and caused eight deaths, although the death toll was later 12.

‘Ten people were murdered on the spot and two others, including a girl, died from their injuries,’ said a security service source who requested anonymity.

The Iwacu daily referred the victims included Army Lieutenant Colonel Onesphore Nizigiyimana, his wife, his daughter and a child, as well as an employee of the Central Bank, without disclosing the identities of the rest of the victims.

A dozen people were also injured in the attack, which the security forces linked to an armed robbery perpetrated by assailants traveling in four vehicles.

‘We are saddened to see Burundi lose its children once again to bandits. (…) All criminals must be put out of action,’ commented the President Evariste Ndayishimiye on Twitter.

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