Gunmen killed two people in Kiyange village, a Burundian village, a local official said on Monday.

A source said on Monday in Bujumbura that the killing happened a day before the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon scheduled visit in a bid to end bloodshed over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s disputed re-election.

The source said Ban would on Tuesday meet Nkurunziza, who has rejected plans by the AU to send peacekeepers to Burundi to ease tensions.

The source said the visit has become imperative to nip the problem in the bud, because more than 400 people have been killed since April when Nkurunziza said he would run for a third term.

He said the bloodshed was as a result of move by the opponents dismissing the term as unconstitutional and sought to prevent by staging street protests.

The source reaffirmed that the late Sunday killing was as a result of the ongoing political crisis in Burundi.

Celestin Singirankabo, the Head of Gisozi District in Mwaro province, said the killings took place late on Sunday in Kiyange village, about 50 km (30 miles) east of Bujumbura.

“It was at around 8.00 p.m. last night when gunmen entered in a bar and opened fire, killing two people.

“The two others were injured and were admitted in a nearby hospital of Ijenda,” he said.

Singirankabo said in the same area soldiers repulsed another armed group.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but government said there are now three rebel outfits fomenting violence, including two groups made up of renegade soldiers.

“In May, a group of soldiers tried to depose Nkuruznziza in a failed coup.

“Rights groups also regularly accuse the government of cracking down on dissent,’’ it said.

Meanwhile, Western powers are expressing concern that Burundi was sliding towards another civil war.

It also noted that many in the region fear the violence could reopen ethnic wounds in the landlocked country of 10 million.

The UN has been under growing pressure to show it can halt the bloodshed, two decades after the 1994 genocide of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by the Hutu majority in neighbouring Rwanda, which has a similar ethnic make-up to Burundi. (Reuters/NAN)