Burundi - Bujumbura

Sporadic violence remains a problem in the capital, Bujumbura-better known to locals as "Tutsiville," as the Tutsis have slaughtered most of the city's Hutus or sent them fleeing into the hills-as well as in the interior, where large numbers of displaced persons are encamped or in hiding. Warfare in neighboring Rwanda has caused thousands of Rwandans to flee to Burundi and other countries in the region. The U.S. embassy has reiterated the importance of using extreme caution, with no travel to the troubled neighborhoods of the capital and none but essential travel in the city after dark. In May 1999, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office advised against all travel to Bujumbura. (In March, the State Department urged U.S. citizens to defer all travel to Burundi and recommended that all U.S. citizens in Burundi leave the country, citing the March 1999 Hutu rebel killings of U.S. citizens in southwestern Uganda.) There is a midnight to dawn curfew in the city and regular reports of armed robberies and carjackings. Armed Tutsi thugs and army soldiers comb the streets after dark, preying on the remaining Hutu militiamen. The Hutus, for the most part, have fled into the surrounding hills and each morning stream down into the capital to go to the market or do other chores before heading back to the hills before dark-to keep from being shot. As one journalist notes: "At 8 p.m., a Burundian must already be where he plans to spend the night." Burundi periodically has closed its land borders without notice and suspended air travel and telephone service in response to political disturbances.