BURUNDI-POLITICS/PROTEST Protest in Burundi’s capital as opposition supporter killed

Record ID: 146470

  • Title: BURUNDI-POLITICS/PROTEST Protest in Burundi’s capital as opposition supporter killed
  • Date: 21st July 2015
  • Summary: BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI (JULY 21, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BLOCKED ROADS VARIOUS OF FIRE AND BLOCKADE / PEOPLE WALKING PAST VARIOUS OF ROCKS BLOCKING THE ROAD POLICE AT THE SCENE POLICE PATROLLING THE AREA OFFICER HOLDING A GUN (SOUNDBITE) (Kirundi) BUJUMBURA RESIDENT, EMERY NDAYIZERE, SAYING: "Most of us knew the deceased; he was a member of the opposition MSD party. He came
  • Embargoed: 5th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Burundi
  • Country: Burundi
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA26JV0WN2AJ1S77990XTY5ABTK
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A policeman and an opposition official died in violence marring the start of Burundi's presidential election on Tuesday (July 21), held amid protests over President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term and an opposition boycott.
    Residents in the capital's Nyakabiga district identified a body found there as an official from the opposition MSD party and accused the government of killing him. A police source confirmed the victim belonged to the opposition.
    A crowd blocked a thoroughfare with rocks and women chanted "We need justice and truth," while escorting the Red Cross ambulance carrying the body.
    "Most of us knew the deceased; he was a member of the opposition MSD party. He came from Gitenga province. He ran away and security officials were looking for him and found him in Dangara. Today they arrested him and killed him," said a resident of Bujumbura, Emery Ndayizere.
    Blasts and gunfire echoed around the capital early on Tuesday in Burundi's worst crisis since a civil war ended in 2005.
    Dozens have been killed in weeks of demonstrations, a failed coup and clashes between rebel soldiers and the army.
    Nkurunziza is accused of violating the constitution by seeking another five years in office, but Nkurunziza, almost sure to win given the opposition boycott, cites a court ruling saying he can run again.
    Western donors and African states, worried about tensions in a region with a history of ethnic conflict, urged Burundi to postpone the poll.
    The United States and European states have halted some aid to Burundi, one of the world's poorest nations.
    More than 170,000 Burundians have fled the nation of 10 million to refugee camps in Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
    Opponents say the president's re-election bid is undermining a peace deal that ended a civil war between rebel groups of the ethnic Hutu majority, including one led by Nkurunziza, and the army, commanded at the time by the Tutsi minority.
    The tension worries neighbouring Rwanda, which has the same ethnic mix and suffered a genocide in 1994 that killed 800,000, mostly Tutsis as well as moderate Hutus.
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