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WASHINGTON, April 8 (AFP) - The United States is closing its embassy in Rwanda and is planning to evacuate the 250 American citizens in the troubled African country, US officials said Friday.
The airport at the Rwandan capital Kigali is closed and the State Department wants to get all Americans out, the officials said.
The airport in Bujumbura, the capital of neighbouring Burundi remained open, the officials said and all but a handful of the 400 American citizens in that country are being urged to leave.
Rwanda was on the verge of civil war Friday as battles with heavy weapons raged in Kigali. The violence followed the deaths Thursday of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi in a plane crash which reportedly was caused by gunfire.
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