AFRICA/BURUNDI - Coup failed: "The streets of Bujumbura are deserted and the national broadcaster is the only outlet still broadcasting"

Friday, 15 May 2015

Bujumbura (Agenzia Fides) - "The streets of Bujumbura are deserted, even though we know that civil society has asked to resume demonstrations against the third term of President Pierre Nkurunziza, who according to rumors, is back in town": this is what local sources told Agenzia Fides, the capital of Burundi.
The coup was announced by General Godefroid Niyombare, a former intelligence chief, but the attempted coup was stopped: "The coup leaders tried to take over the National Radio, but did not succeed. At least a dozen soldiers died in the clashes and others were injured. Only three of the coup leaders were handed over to military loyalists. General Niyombare instead escaped the capture"
"We do not know if and how the appeals for protest will reach the population - continue Fides sources - because the national broadcaster is the only outlet still broadcasting, in government hands. In the two days of fighting, offices of the independent radio were destroyed and burned: one, close to the President, by the military rebels, the other, it seems, by the police (who sided with the President)".
The four previous Presidents of Burundi, two Hutu and two Tutsi, signed together a declaration addressed to the Chairman of the EAC (East African Community - EAC composed of Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Uganda) in which they state that the third term is unconstitutional.
"Two days ago the Bishops clarified what they had said before the attempted coup (see Fides 07/05/2015), stating that in these conditions it would be appropriate to postpone the elections, because at the moment it is impossible to go to the polls on May 26 to elect MEPs and local bodies and on June 26 for the President", say our sources. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 15/05/2015)


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