VIOLENCE claimed nine more lives in Burundi on Saturday night, just before a deadline to surrender arms.

A local witness said that gunmen ordered everyone seated outside the bar in the southern Kanyosha district of the capital Bujumbura to move inside before they started shooting indiscriminately.

Another witness said the bar’s owner, his nephew and one of his employees were among the victims.

A government deadline to surrender illegally held weapons or face police action expired at midnight on Saturday.

The US State Department warned that the security measure was “increasing the risk of an outbreak of mass violence.”
Clashes between government and opposition forces since April over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s re-election — and a failed military coup in May — has now left at least 200 people dead.

Last week the US imposed trade sanctions on Burundi for alleged human-rights violations in combating the violence.