BUJUMBURA, Nov 10: About 100 youths kidnapped by a rebel group in Burundi have managed to escape from their captors, one of the mostly teenage boys said Saturday, amid fears the rebels were press-ganging child soldiers.

“There was shooting between the army and the rebels ... and we took advantage of a moment of inattention to escape,” Edmond Nsimirimana told AFP.

About 100 youths kidnapped by rebels in a raid at Musema High School escaped during the afternoon, confirmed Come Hatungimana, administrator of Butaganzwa town, where the school is located.

However, the fate of scores of others remained unknown.

Nsimirimana was among 250 to 300 students aged between 14 and 21 who were abducted after the Hutu extremist rebels attacked at about 4:00 am (0200 GMT) on Friday.

The rebels of the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) seized only the boys, leaving girl students alone, Hatungimana said.

Rebel raids and clashes between the mainly Tutsi army and the FDD have been on the increase since a power-sharing government of Tutsis and Hutus was sworn in on November 1 in a bid to end eight years of civil war.

The FDD and the other main Hutu rebel National Liberation Forces (FLN) have refused to sign an agreement reached in August 2000 among the politicians and political parties, which paved the way for the transitional regime.

This administration has brought some Hutu politicians back from exile for a power-sharing team, currently headed by President Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, with a Hutu vice-president. The roles are due to be reversed among the ethnic groups in 18 months’ time.

In Geneva on Friday, the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF said it feared the rebel group was engaged in a campaign to force boys to serve as fighters. Rebels have said they plan to enlist youths.

Other sources have expressed concern that they will be used as human shields by extremist rebels determined to pursue a conflict which has already killed an estimated 250,000 people, mainly civilians, since 1993.

After setting the Musema school ablaze, the rebels headed toward an FDD stronghold at Kibira, in a forest a few kilometres from the town, whose inhabitants are ethnic Hutus.

Army spokesman Augustin Nzabampema on Friday confirmed the kidnapping, but did not give details.—AFP