BUJUMBURA, Nov 9: Hutu rebels in northern Burundi kidnapped hundreds of high school students on Friday, days after more than 80 school children were taken hostage in an eastern province.

Between 250 and 300 boys were kidnapped at dawn by rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) from a high school in Musema, a hamlet in Burundi’s northern Kayanza province.

“Between 250 and 300 students were abducted,” the town’s administrator Come Hatungimana said.

After setting the school ablaze, the rebels headed toward their stronghold of Kibira, in the forest, a dozen kilometres away from the town, whose inhabitants are ethnic Hutus. Army spokesman Augustin Nzabampema confirmed the kidnapping, but did not give details.

On Tuesday, rebels kidnapped 80 children — boys between 11 and 16 years old — from their school in Burundi’s eastern Ruyigi province, and abducted an unknown number of other children when fleeing the town, officials said.—AFP