Hutu rebels and allied attackers armed with guns and machetes killed at least 159 people in "a plan of genocide" at a camp for Tutsi Congolese refugees in western Burundi, the army said today.
Women screamed and wailed at the horrific scenes of bodies of men, women and children hacked down or shot dead. A witness saw one woman lying dead with machete wounds all over her body as her infant child clung at her breast.
The Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL) claimed responsibility for last night's attack, saying they were aiming to hit a military camp nearby.
But Burundi's army said the attack's purpose was killing refugees at their camp and it was not aimed at the military base. Six bodies of refugees who had been kidnapped and later killed were recovered near the camp, it said.
Ms Isabelle Abric, spokeswoman for the United Nations mission to Burundi, said 153 people had been killed in the camp, and another 30 among those taken to hospital after the attack may have died.
The UN refugee agency said it would consider moving the camp where the army said 111 people had also been wounded.
Some refugees said the attack was planned, citing unsigned leaflets circulated this week urging death to the Banyamulenge - the term for the mostly Tutsi Congolese refugees.
Burundi's President Mr Domitien Ndayizeye visited the UN refugee agency's Gatumba camp, which is near the town of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and provides shelter for between 2,500 and 3,000 Banyamulenge.
"What I witnessed here is a humanitarian disaster. I heard that the FNL claimed the attack ... now the international community must understand that the FNL are terrorists and we must combine our efforts to fight this movement," he said.
He said if the attackers were from Congo, Burundi would take unspecified "serious measures" against them.
"Armed men coming from the east of (Congo) on Friday night attacked the refugee camp of Banyamulenge in Gatumba. We have a temporary toll of 153 refugees killed," army spokesman Adolphe Manirakiza told Reuters before the six bodies were discovered.
"I think this is just a plan of genocide against the Tutsi in the Great Lakes region because the information we have is that the FNL combined with Mai Mai militia (traditional Congolese warriors) to attack this camp.The initial information we have is that the assailants were speaking Lingala (a Congolese local language)," he said.