THIRTY SIX MEN were killed by armed men from Congo who burst into a pub in the central African nation of Burundi.

One man who was wounded said an attacker yelled: “Make sure there’s no survivors.”

Burundi is still reeling from a civil war that killed more than 250,000 people. It is awash in weapons but attacks like the one Sunday night are rare.

Bujumbura province governor Jacques Minani said the attackers targeted the pub in Gatumba, west of Burundi’s capital, after crossing the river from Congo.

Survivor Jackson Kabura, who was shot in the stomach, said the men entered wearing military fatigues.

“One of them said, ‘kill them all, kill them all. Make sure there’s no survivors,’” he said.

Congolese military spokesman Col Sylvain Ekenge said officials were “astonished” by reports that the attackers were believed to be from his country.

He said the perpetrators are more likely to be rebels from Burundi’s last rebel army, the Forces for National Liberation.

For the past year there have been reports that the extremist Burundian Hutu rebel group, led by Agathon Rwasa, is operating in eastern Congo and may be preparing for war in Burundi.

Burundi’s war started in 1993, when Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country’s first democratically elected president, a Hutu.

Although a ceasefire was declared in 2006, it took several more years to finally see an official end to the fighting.