As a regional Heads of State meeting focusing on the armed conflict in Burundi began in Dar es Salaam, Amnesty International called on the Heads of State to condemn in the strongest terms the escalation of unlawful killings of civilians in Burundi and to demand that the Transitional Government of Burundi and armed political groups take immediate measures to improve the accountability of their armed forces.

Two army officers have been imprisoned in connection with the killing of some 173 people in Itaba, in the central province of Gitega, Net Press reported last Thursday.

Nearly 900 Burundians have fled to neighbouring Tanzania in recent days, with more expected to follow amid reports of heightened fighting, house burning and the killing of civilians in the strife-torn country.

Burundi's Ministry of Health has appealed for more meningitis vaccine because of an increase in cases of the disease in Gitega Province in central Burundi and Karuzi in the northeast.

Amnesty International in Bujumbura has published a new report - Poverty, isolation and ill-treatment: Juvenile Justice in Burundi -which highlights the multiple abuses children are suffering at the hands of the law.

The Burundi army has denied responsibility for the massacre of over 170 people in central Gitega province, saying it had been "deliberately misquoted". Army spokesman Colonel Augustin Nzabampema told IRIN last Friday rebel fighters were "fully responsible" for the massacre which occurred on 9 September.

A commission has been established by the Burundi government to investigate the massacre of 183 people on 9 September by unknown gunmen in Itaba Commune, central Gitega Province.

A process of "villagisation" is slowly taking place in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Burundi's central province of Gitega and the northern province of Ngozi, according to humanitarian sources.

IRC activities in Bujumbura Rurale Province cover seven core sites and consist of environmental health (including water and sanitation and hygiene promotion), construction and non-formal education.

Burundian women leaders have said they are satisfied with the progress they are making and are looking forward to obtaining more leadership positions in the country's institutions.

Four Burundian rebel movements have said they must be included in all ceasefire negotiations with the government.

A week-long fire, which has razed 700 ha of the Kibira forest, in northwestern Burundi, was started by rebels who have been using the area as a stronghold for its attacks on government troops, news sources who have just visited the area said.

Cibitoke provincial health authorities have said that four of the 215 people who have contracted cholera in the area between 2 July and 19 August have died, and that overcoming the disease in this part of the country had become difficult.

A follow-up round of a polio vaccination campaign on Tuesday entered its second day in six Burundian provinces bordering on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

NDI seeks a resident director to manage and develop its program in Burundi. The goal of the anticipated 12-month program is to strengthen the capacity of Burundi's transitional legislature, in particular its ability to implement key provisions of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement (APRA).

We are seeking an Assistant Country Director, to be based in Bujumbura, Burundi.  Reporting to the Country Director, and working closely with the project managers, he/she will help develop and execute the strategy of the Search for Common Ground in Burundi program, being responsible particularly for the day to day management of the branch offices and for the overall operations management of the Bujumbura center.

In complex humanitarian emergencies, such as the present situation in Burundi, acute malnutrition becomes an inevitable consequence of armed conflict.

A three-day seminar aimed at informing members of Burundi's minority Batwa community on their human rights, democracy and the country's peace process ended in the central province of Gitega on Wednesday.

A new round of negotiations between Burundi's government and rebel troops is scheduled to open in Dar-es-Salaam on 6 August. However the prospects are still weak that the talks will result in a sustainable and all-inclusive ceasefire, according to a new briefing from CrisisWeb News.

Burundi's Group of Five pro-Tutsi parties have withdrawn their threat to suspend participation in state institutions, so that Tuesday's planned ceasefire talks between rebels and the transitional government could have a better chance of success, a Burundian news agency, Net Press, reported.