FBI to Probe into Bagged Bodies Floating in Lake

{Burundi’s government wants the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist in investigating reports of decomposed bodies being found floating in a lake bordering Rwanda, according to Bloomberg reports.}

The FBI through the U.S Embassy in Burundi last week offered to help identify the bodies and gather evidence in the deaths, Nzobonariba said in an interview today in the capital, Bujumbura. Fisherman on Lake Rweru have found about 40 bagged corpses floating in the water since July.

“It is up to the qualified agents of investigation to see where these bodies come from, as Burundi and Rwanda reject all the paternity of the bodies,” Nzobonariba said.

The corpses may have been carried into Lake Rweru via the Akagera River, downstream from Rwanda, the Nairobi-based East African newspaper reported on Sept. 20, citing Burundi’s presidential spokesman Willy Nyamitwe.

At least four of the bodies were buried on the Burundian side of the lake “without identification for health concerns only,” said Nzobonariba. “It is important for families to know what happened to theirs and to mourn them,” he said.

Burundi, a nation of 10 million people, is recovering from a 12-year civil war that ended in 2005, in which 300,000 people died. It is scheduled to hold elections next year.

Bloomberg