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Burundians flee worst crisis since civil war

NO WAY: A youth jumps over a barricade during clashes between protesters and riot police in Bujumbura yesterday. Hundreds marched in a third day of protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term, a move critics say violates the constitution PHOTOs: Thomas Mukoya/REUTERS
NO WAY: A youth jumps over a barricade during clashes between protesters and riot police in Bujumbura yesterday. Hundreds marched in a third day of protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term, a move critics say violates the constitution PHOTOs: Thomas Mukoya/REUTERS

Bujumbura - Police fired teargas and shot in the air to disperse hundreds of people protesting on the outskirts of Burundi's capital yesterday against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term.

Crowds gathered in the morning waving placards and chanting slogans accusing the president of breaking the constitution. Some blocked a road with burning tyres on the third day of sometimes violent demonstrations here.

One protester said two people suffered gunshot wounds in the northern Cibitoke suburb, though there was no immediate confirmation from police. Two protesters have been killed and more than 250 people arrested since protests erupted on Sunday, Burundi's police chief André Ndayambaje told local media earlier in the day.

Activists say at least five protesters have died. Nkurunziza's announcement on Saturday that he would run in June 26 elections has triggered the worst political crisis in the country since it emerged from civil war a decade ago.

The United Nations yesterday said secretary general Ban Ki-moon has sent Said Djinnit - special envoy for the Great Lakes region - to Burundi for talks with Nkurunziza and the opposition. Ban also called for security services to show restraint.

Activists say Nkurunziza and his ruling CNDD-FDD party are breaking two-term limits set out in the constitution and the Arusha peace agreement that ended the civil war and has been credited with containing Burundi's ethnic rifts. The president's supporters said his first term does not count as he was picked by lawmakers, not elected.

"I am calling upon President Nkurunziza to abandon seeking a third term to prevent the country from massive violence and killings," opposition leader Agathon Rwasa said yesterday. Crowds waved placards marked with the message: "No to third term". Burundi's civil war pitted the army, then dominated by the ethnic Tutsi minority, against rebel groups mostly made up of majority Hutus, one of them led by Nkurunziza. The army now includes both ethnic groups.

The prospect of a fresh build-up of ethnic strife will sound alarm bells across a region still scarred by the 1994 genocide in Burundi's neighbour Rwanda, where more than 800000 people were killed, most of them Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Authorities say about 21000 people have fled from Burundi to Rwanda, and 4000 more to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government imposed restrictions on several radio stations on Monday and people reported being unable to use the WhatsApp messaging service yesterday.

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