 The FNL has carried out several attacks in recent days |
Burundi's last active rebel group has offered to hold peace talks with the government and halt its campaign of insurgency, say officials. Ethnic Hutu FNL rebels announced the move after discussions in Tanzania.
Communications Minister Onesime Nduwimana said he thought it was a positive development that would end the country's bloody civil war.
More than 300,000 people have died in 12 years of fighting between the Tutsi minority and Hutu majority.
Terrorism?
Other former Hutu rebels groups have already joined a transitional government of national unity.
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 The FNL claimed responsibility for a massacre last year |
A statement after talks between the Tanzanian government and FNL delegates said the movement led by Agathon Rwasa was ready to hold talks with the Burundian government without any pre-conditions and to suspend all hostilities on the ground.
In August last year, the FNL claimed responsibility for killing more than 150 Congolese refugees in Burundi's border town of Gatumba. This led to regional heads of state branding it a terrorist group.
The FNL have been active around Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, and carried out several attacks in the past few days.