December 18, 2005: UN peacekeepers begin their withdrawal this week. About 200 troops will leave, and all 5,000 UN peacekeepers are to be gone by the end of 2006.
December 15, 2005: The Burundian government claimed that its forces hit the rebel Forces for National Liberation (FNL) hard in October and November of this year. A word of warning: the following are Burundian government figures, not independent figures. The government said the Burundian Army killed 120 rebels during the two month period and captured 646. This is out of an estimated 3000 FNL fighters. That means the government is claiming 25 percent of the FNL holdouts were either killed or captured since October 1. This is doubtful, but the FNL is taking a beating, and is still out there.
December 5, 2005: The government believes the FNL are rapidly losing what little civilian support they have, as more former FNL supporters report to government officials, with information about FNL activities, and requests for protection from FNL retribution.
November 25, 2005: Responding to a government report that troops had killed 41 FNL rebels, the FNL fired three 60mm mortar shells at the capita outskirts. There were no casualties.
