Burundian General Claims Dethroning President

A Burundian general said yesterday that he had deposed President Pierre Nkurunziza for seeking an unconstitutional third term in office and was forming a transitional government, after more than two weeks of protests against the election bid.

But as cheering crowds streamed onto the streets of Bujumbura, sporadic gunfire was heard in the center of the capital, and it was not immediately clear how much support Major General Godefroid Niyombare had.

With Nkurunziza abroad at an African summit to discuss the crisis, the presidency rubbished the declaration by Niyombare, who had been fired as Nkurunziza’s intelligence chief in February, saying on Facebook that the coup had been “foiled”.

“We consider it as a joke, not as a military coup,” presidential aide Willy Niyamitwe told Reuters East African leaders meeting in Tanzania condemned the attempt to oust the president and called for a return to the “constitutional order”.

A Tanzanian official said Nkurunziza had not attended the meetings, and had left to return to Burundi. Niyombare said the capital’s airport and all border crossings were closed.

Activists say more than 20 people have been killed in weeks of protest against Nkurunziza’s re- election bid, plunging Burundi into its worst crisis since an ethnically fueled civil war ended in 2005.