At a side of the Rusizi river in Burundi, not far from a group of hippos and half hidden by huge clumps of reeds, lies the first body, a headless man naked to the waist. Close by, surrounded by pieces of trash, are two more - one a woman, also decapitated.

"For the past week the Rusizi has been washing down corpses with marks of violence. This morning we counted four," says Julien Nimbona, a local official.

"Last week we buried first four, then six, so that's a total of 14 corpses from the Rukoko marshes in less than a week. People are frightened, really frightened because we don't know if the war has resumed or not."

Rumours of new rebels
These incidents seem to confirm persistent rumours of the presence of new rebel pockets in Rukoko and in the Kibira forest, which runs from north to central Burundi.

"I helped bury most of those corpses - some were decapitated, others had the limbs bound or had machete wounds," tells a fisherman from Gatumba. "I'm afraid. Everyone in Gatumba is afraid because everyone knows that once again there are fighters in the Rukoko marshes."

Several families in the area said they had no news of relatives who went into the marshes to gather reeds or wood. Some families also spoke of young people who went there to join the rebel movement.

Fear takes over
"I've heard talk of people being killed in the Rukoko marshes and of others being recruited there but no one wants to admit this publicly because people are scared," says Nimbona.

"Fear has taken over the region because people are afraid that hostilities will resume," he adds.

Gatumba, with some 35,000 inhabitants is a stronghold of the old Burundian rebellion, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), now an opposition political party. No one dares mention the mysterious new armed group.

Lucie, a woman around 30, is collecting water in a battered jerrycan held together with tar. "Look at my clothes, look at my baby - we're poor. If there is a another war in Burundi, it will be the end for people like us," she says in a resigned voice.

(Source: AFP)