(UN News Centre) – Children, some as young as four years old, are bearing the brunt of the prolonged instability and election-related violence in Burundi, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today, confirming reports of an additional three deaths of children over the last five days. Speaking to reporters in Geneva, UNICEF spokesperson Christophe Boulierac said one of the children died because of a grenade explosion in the Muyinga province, becoming the first child victim of the violence outside of the capital city of Bujumbura. In total, since the beginning of the confrontations in April, eight children have been killed in the violence, he continued, noting also that a child of only four years old had been killed by a stray bullet to the stomach, becoming the youngest victim of the election-related violence so far.
