Violence has escalated in Burundi amid more protests at the president’s decision to run for a third term office. In the capital Bujumbara several
Violence has escalated in Burundi amid more protests at the president’s decision to run for a third term office.
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In the capital Bujumbara several deaths were reported.
AFP journalists say they saw police open fire on demonstrators, killing one man with a bullet to the head and injuring others.
There are also unconfirmed accounts that protesters burned alive a suspected member of the ruling party’s youth wing.
TIME reported that a man suspected of belong to the ruling party’s youth militia had escaped a mob attack by hiding in sewers.
The Red Cross said two people including a woman had been killed.
President Nkurunziza has vowed not to run for a fourth term.
His office has denied putting pressure on the constitutional court, which ruled he can seek a third term in June.
The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) has estimated that more than 20,000 people have left Burundi for neighbouring Rwanda because of the violence.
The protests have left more than a dozen people dead, the worst violence in the country since the end of the civil war between Hutus and Tutsis in 2005.
The president, who’s rejected US pressure to step down, has promised to free all those arrested if the demonstrations stop.
Foreign ministers from four East African states have been in Burundi to try to solve the crisis.