Picture: THINKSTOCK
Picture: THINKSTOCK

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NAIROBI — At least five people were killed in overnight clashes in Burundi, police said on Sunday and residents reported a battle at the president’s office in the capital Bujumbura, which has been plagued by violence since a disputed presidential election.

Burundi has been in crisis since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April he planned to run for a third term — a move opponents said violated the constitution and a peace treaty that ended a 12-year civil war in 2005.

Hundreds have been killed in related violence since April and 217,000 people have fled to surrounding countries, raising fears of a slide into ethnic conflict in a region in which memories of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda are still raw.

Mr Nkurunziza said a court ruling allowed his presidential bid and went on to win a disputed election in July.

Residents in Bujumbura’s Rohero neighbourhood, close to the president’s office, said they heard shooting and explosions overnight.

"We heard a lot of shootings, explosions and shelling. And it was a kind of exchange of fire between soldiers at the presidency and attackers. Mortars were also fired," a night watchman near the president’s office said.

Officials and police could not be reached for comment and state media television did not report any violence at the presidency.

However, Bujumbura mayor Freddy Mbonimpa said four people were killed across the capital, two policemen wounded and 28 people arrested.

The arrests occurred in the Ngagara neighbourhood on Saturday afternoon, when police raided a bar and detained 28 youths on suspicion of having weapons.

"That is why they came to arrest them for investigation which has now begun," Mr Mbonimpa said. The mayor lives in the neighbourhood and survived a gun attack at his house earlier this week.

But residents said the youths were unarmed, and they were old schoolfriends gathering before a wedding. Later that evening, protesters took to the street, shouting: "Nkurunziza out, we will never accept your illegal third term." This was followed by the sound of gunfire and explosions, according to a resident.

Blasts, grenade and gun attacks in Bujumbura have become frequent. The leader of a failed coup in May, Gen Leonard Ngendakumana, has said his loyalists were behind some of the assaults that targeted police, who opponents blamed for shooting and killing demonstrators.

Reuters