Tag Archives: 3rd term

Zedi Feruzi, The Leader Of Burundi’s Opposition Party Shot Dead

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It’s getting serious in Burundi. The leader of a Burundian opposition party was shot dead on Saturday May 23rd along with his bodyguard, following weeks of anti-government unrest.

Zedi Feruzi was the head of the Union for Peace and Development (UPD) and was walking home with a bodyguard in Bujumbura’s Ngagara district when he was attacked by gun wielding men.
An AFP reporter at the scene saw the bloodied bodies of both Feruzi and a police bodyguard lying outside the house soon after the shooting.

Residents said a third person, believed to be another police officer tasked with protecting Feruzi, was
seriously injured in the incident.
“We heard around 20 gunshots, everyone fell to the ground, people saw a Toyota car speeding away,” said a neighbour, who did not witness the shooting himself.
Around an hour after the attack police had yet to arrive at the scene. Meanwhile, two barricades of tyres were set alight in the district, where local youths were sealing off streets and alleyways to outsiders.
The killings, a day after a grenade attack on a busy market in the capital killed three people, risk further fuelling tensions in Burundi after weeks of violent protests triggered by the president’s controversial bid for a third term.

Source: AFP

Burundi President Fires 3 Ministers After Failed Coup

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Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, has announced a partial cabinet reshuffle in addition to firing the ministers of Defence, foreign affairs and trade, replacing them with trusted figures after a failed coup attempt on May 13 by the military.

The decision was made public a few hours after thousands of people took to the streets of the capital of Burundi, in a new set of protests against Nkurunziza’s intention to seek an unconstitutional third presidential term, sparked after five days of relative calm in the African country.

Burundian Protesters Back On The Streets After Failed Coup

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About a hundred protesters took to the streets of Bujumbura on Saturday against Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term, a day after he returned to the capital following a failed coup. Reuters was there:

The east African nation was plunged into deep crisis after Nkurunziza announced he was running for another five-year term, with clashes between police an protesters stirring memories of an ethnically driven civil war that ended just a decade ago. “A lot of us citizens do not want the constitution to be violated as he is not allowed to lead for the third term…. We will demonstrate until he steps down,” said Nduwimana Belamie, one of the protesters.

Opponents say Nkurunziza’s decision violates the constitution and the Arusha deal to end the war that pitted rebel groups of the majority Hutu population, including one led by Nkurunziza, against the army which was then commanded by minority Tutsis. The army is now mixed and has absorbed rival factions, but the coup attempt exposed divisions.

The fate of General Godefroid Niyombare, who had announced the president’s ouster on Wednesday, was still not clear on Saturday, after loyalist troops calmed the streets of the capital on Friday following clashes between the two factions on Thursday. A Reuters photographer saw the army clearing barricades set up by protesters in some areas of the capital.