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BURUNDI
Brother killed
Italian missionary targeted
Brother Antonio Bargiggia and an unidentified Burundi were killed on the road between the town of Mutoyi and the capital Bujumbura in October. A third person, a priest of Les Freres Pauvres (The Poor Brothers), escaped. He asked not to be named.
The priest said that four armed men, two in military dress and two in civilian clothes, shot at the three travelers on the quiet road. He said he did not know whether the attackers were soldiers or rebels. The Burundi army, mostly of the ethnic Tutsi minority, has been engaged in a civil war with Hutu rebels since 1993.
Brother Bargiggia had lived in Burundi for 20 years helping to run a hospital and a mission. “We are here to try to help vulnerable people but I don’t understand what is happening to us, why we are the target,” the unidentified priest said. Burundi army officials later said they had arrested four men in connection with the deaths. Army spokesman Major Edward Nibigira said, “Three men were arrested . . . at a hotel in [the nearby town of] Bugarama in connection with the killings. A fourth man fled but was captured with the help of the population.” He added, “They were former soldiers who deserted from the army four months ago. We’ve been searching for them ourselves for a long time.”
Brother Antonio was a Combonian missionary, and it was variously reported that he was a priest or a religious brother.
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