NAIROBI: The head of Burundi’s armed forces on Friday survived an assassination attempt in the capital Bujumbura, police said, adding that at least seven people were killed in the attack.
Top security sources said the attackers were all serving soldiers in the Burundian army, and said the “meticulously prepared” assault pointed to “serious divisions” within the crisis-hit central African nation’s armed forces.
Burundi has been gripped by months of unrest surrounding President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial but successful bid for a third term in power, which also provoked a failed coup in mid-May. The target of the Friday’s attack, General Prime Niyongabo, is a top Nkurunziza loyalist who played a key role in the defeat of the coup.
“There was an attack against the armed forces chief, General Prime Niyongabo, but happily he was unharmed,” Burundi’s deputy police chief, General Godefroid Bizimana, told AFP, adding that two attackers were killed in the clash and a third arrested.
“Reinforcements have arrived. We are pursuing the remainder of the commandos,” Bizimana added.
Another senior police source, who asked not to be named, said four bodyguards were also killed, as well as a female police officer.
“The attack was meticulously prepared. It was sudden and violent. Four bodyguards were killed instantly. He managed to survive only because the driver managed to overtake a bus transporting police officers to work, and the attackers could not keep up,” said the source.
The source said the attackers were wearing military uniforms and travelling in a military vehicle, and appeared to be serving members of the Burundian armed forces.
“It clearly shows that there is a problem of serious divisions in our army,” he said.
Nkurunziza won a highly-controversial third term in July in polls boycotted by the opposition and denounced by the United Nations as neither free nor fair. His re-election bid sparked an attempted coup by rebel generals and months of civil unrest led by opposition groups, who condemned his re-election bid as unconstitutional.
There has also been a string of killings since his re-election, including the assassination of his top security chief in a rocket attack last month.
Opposition supporters and dissidents have also been arrested, tortured, murdered or forced into exile.
Burundi’s constitution only allows a president to be elected twice — for a total of 10 years in power — but Nkurunziza argued ahead of the poll that he had only been directly elected by the people once.
In power since 2005, when he was selected by parliament, he was first re-elected in 2010.
Many have raised alarm bells at the risk of renewed conflict in Burundi, which lies in the heart of central Africa’s troubled Great Lakes region. At least 300,000 people were killed in a civil war there from 1993-2006.
— AFP
