A group of around 50 unidentified gunmen raided two villages outside the Burundi capital overnight, destroying homes and stealing money and goods, an army spokesman said Monday. 'A group of unidentified bandits armed with guns and wearing military uniforms invaded the village of Cabiza then attacked the neighbouring village of Kagwema ... where they sacked the homes and stole money and goods,' colonel Gaspard Baratuza told selfnews. No villagers were injured by the gunmen, who forced residents to carry the goods stolen from them to Rukoko swamp, into which they then fled, Baratuza added. The villages are located some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the capital Bujumbura, and near the Rukoko swamp, which forms the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo and for a long time served as a refuge for Hutu rebels of the National Liberation Front (FNL), which definitively laid down its arms in 2009. The raids come amid persistent rumours following disputed May local elections that several budding rebel groups have set up in the Rukoko swamp and Kibira forest. Burundi's opposition parties boycotted presidential and parliamentary polls in June and July claiming that the local elections in May were rigged by the government. President Pierre Nkurunziza run virtually unopposed and was re-elected after taking more than 90 percent of the vote. His regime came under criticism for clamping down on opposition and media freedom during this year's polls meant to consolidate democracy in the state ravaged by a 13-year civil war that erupted in 1993 and claimed some 300,000 lives. 