Bujumbura - The last group of students kidnapped by rebels from a school in north-west Burundi had escaped yesterday, but more than 50 others remained in rebel hands in the east where fighting raged on, local officials said.
Rebels of the ethnic Hutu majority have abducted hundreds of students from schools in Kayanza and Ruyigi provinces in the past week, apparently to force them to join their eight-year-old struggle against the Tutsi-dominated army.