Italian surgeon killed in Burundi's capital

By Jean Bosco

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AA) - An Italian doctor has been murdered in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura, according to police.

"Franco de Simone, an Italian surgeon living in Burundi, was attacked by unidentified persons at his home in the Kiriri district [eastern Bujumbura] on Sunday night," police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye told Anadolu Agency on Monday, adding that the victim was "violently stabbed".

No information is yet available on the identity of the assailants or the motives for the crime, he said, adding that one person has already been arrested in the ongoing investigation.

The doctor is the first European to be killed in the east African country since the onset of Burundi's political and security crisis in April 2015.

In October 2014, three Italian nuns were murdered in the Guido Maria de Conforti parish in Kamenge, north of Bujumbura.

Unrest in Burundi started in April 2015 when Pierre Nkurunziza announced his candidacy for a controversial third term.

The crisis has led to the deaths of about 1,000 people and forced more than 300,000 to flee the country in the past two years, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Federation of Human Rights.