/ 26 May 2015

Burundi police kill one during anti-Nkurunziza protest

About 30 people have been killed so far in Burundi during clashes with police.
About 30 people have been killed so far in Burundi during clashes with police.

Monday’s violence in Muyange in Bururi province, around 60km southeast of the capital, is one of the first confirmed reports of civil unrest erupting outside the capital Bujumbura since protests against President Nkurunziza’s decision to stand for a third term erupted last month.

Civil unrest was also reported in Matana, further south in the same province.

Protests against Nkurunziza’s controversial bid to stand for the presidency again have been taking place in the small central African nation since late April, but the violence, which has left at least 30 dead, has largely been confined to the capital.

Nkurunziza has insisted that the unrest has only affected four districts of the capital, and that there is “peace and security in 99.9% of the country.”

Some small, minor protests had been reported in rural areas of the nation in recent weeks, but far smaller and more sporadic in nature than in the capital.

Around 110 000 Burundians, however, have fled the country in fear of an outbreak of widespread unrest, including 70 000 to neighbouring Tanzania.

Opposition and rights groups say that Nkurunziza’s bid for a third five-year term violates the Constitution as well as the terms of a peace deal that ended a 13-year civil war in 2006. – Al Jazeera