Bujumbura, Burundi - The Burundi government says the assassination of East African Legislative Assembly MP Hafsa Mossi was a new form of terrorism imported from outside the country.
Mossi, a former cabinet minister in Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza's government, was gunned down in her car in Bujumbura on Wednesday.
The assassins were driving a car with Tanzanian number plates, according to a witness. Mossi was buried on Wednesday evening, according to Muslim custom.
She leaves three children, reports the BBC, with whom she was once its correspondent in Burundi.
Government spokesperson Philippe Nzobonariba said in a statement: “The Burundi government deplores this despicable act that appears to be a new terrorist form of assassination which was clearly imported from the outside considering the operational method which was used.”
Two armed persons in the vehicle with Tanzanian plates bumped into Mossi's car about 150 metres from her home on Wednesday morning.
When she stopped, they got out of their vehicle and shot her. Nzobonariba condemned the targeted assassination which he said was not the first against a government official in recent days.
Many officials, especially army officers, have been assassinated since unrest erupted in the country in April last year when Nkurunziza announced he would run for a third term as president, despite the two term limit in the country's constitution.
Nzobonariba said the government had launched an immediate investigation to bring the perpetrators “and their silent partners” to court. Meanwhile East Africa Community mediator in the Burundi peace talks Benjamin Mkapa was due to close the second round of negotiations on Thursday.
He tried to launch the second round officially on Tuesday this week, but the government delegation walked out of the negotiating hall in Arusha, Tanzania.
They walked out because of the presence of leaders of the main opposition alliance CNARED, and of civil society groups which the government accuses of being behind a coup attempt against Nkurunziza's government in May last year.
But Mkapa, a former president of Tanzania, continued with separate consultations with different delegations.
On Wednesday he gave all the stakeholders a possible agenda for the next round of talks, including the establishment of a unity government and ways of tackling the country's security problems.
Mkapa was expected to announce further details at the close of the consultations later on Thursday.
African News Agency (ANA)