Heavy fighting erupts between rival Burundi troops

Fighting reported around building of state broadcaster as claims over success of coup are made and president’s plane is prevented from landing

Gunfire is heard in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, after an attempted military coup

Fierce fighting between rival Burundian troops has erupted in the capital, Bujumbura, deepening fears that Wednesday’s coup attempt could trigger a bloody and protracted power struggle.
Forces loyal to President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose whereabouts are unknown, were resisting an assault on the state television and radio complex, military sources and witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Independent broadcasters were hit by rocket and grenade attacks.

Burundi has been a tinderbox since Gen Godefroid Niyombare, a former intelligence chief fired three months ago, announced that Nkurunziza had been ousted after weeks of deadly civil unrest sparked by the president’s attempt to stand for a third term. The president was in Tanzania for a meeting with regional leaders at the time of Niyombare’s speech, and there are reports that he has not returned to Burundi.
Thick plumes of smoke obscured sections of Bujumbura’s skyline on Thursday as buildings burned. Gunfire increased in frequency throughout the morning and residents claimed that police forces guarding the ruling party’s headquarters were firing on anyone who came near.
“There are policemen guarding the CNDD-FDD headquarters, they’re firing from the headquarters and if you cross the road nearby they’re shooting at you,” said Ngugusony Buyenzi, who was among a crowd of people gathered a couple of miles from the party HQ. When a police truck came down the road the crowd scattered. “We want to continue with our lives, we want peace, we don’t want to live with this insecurity,” he said.

Two of Buyenzi’s friends were shot the night before, he believes by Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the ruling party. “They’re waiting for night, the police will return to shoot us tonight,” he said.
Thousands of people took to the streets on Wednesday to celebrate Niyombare’s announcement but the security services appear to have divided into pro- and anti-Nkurunziza factions. In the early hours of Thursday, the armed forces chief, Gen Prime Niyongabo, said on state radio: “The coup attempt failed, loyal forces are still controlling all strategic points. The national defence force calls on the mutineers to give themselves up.”

A spokesman for the attempted coup, Burundi’s police commissioner, Venon Ndabaneze, dismissed the claim and said Niyombare’s supporters were in control of many key sites, including Bujumbura’s international airport. “We control virtually the entire city. The soldiers who are being deployed are on our side,” he told AFP.

A anti-Nkurunziza’s protester gestures in front of a burning barricade in Bujumbura. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

A journalist inside the state TV and radio building said it came under attack after the loyalist broadcast and that heavy weapons including cannon and rockets were being used.
Media organisations were also caught up in the violence. The African Public Radio station, which was shut down during the weeks of protests and reopened after the coup attempt, was hit by a rocket and was ablaze, witnesses said.
A grenade attack seriously damaged the building of Renaissance TV, where Niyombare made his coup statement, according to the station’s director, Innocent Muhozi. One of his offices was also burned overnight, he told the Associated Press.
The whereabouts of the 51-year-old president remain unclear. He attempted to fly back from a summit in Tanzania, where regional leaders were discussing the situation in Burundi, but the airport had been closed to stop him from landing. His plane reportedly returned to Tanzania.
The main streets of the city were almost entirely free of cars on Thursday, while small crowds of onlookers gathered on the roadside diving behind walls and buildings when gunfire rang out.
Others continued on their way to work, hoping they would be safer in hotels and restaurants than on the streets.
Jermoe Njibariko, a security officer at a nearby hotel, was on his way to work when police unleashed gunfire about 25 metres away from him. He hid behind the wall of a nearby church to avoid being hit. “They don’t care who you are, they don’t care where you’re going, they’re just shooting,” he said.

Residents on a street in Bujumbura. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

The violence leaves Burundi facing its biggest crisis since the end of a 12-year ethnically charged civil war in 2006. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the conflict and the subsequent peace accord ensured that the future army would be split 50-50 between minority Tutsis and majority Hutus.
The attempted coup has caused alarm internationally. East African leaders attending the summit in Tanzania said in a joint communique: “The region will not accept nor stand by if violence does not stop or escalates in Burundi.”
Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the chair of the African Union commission, said: “The chairperson condemns in the strongest terms today’s coup attempt in Bujumbura, calls for the return to constitutional order and urges all stakeholders to exercise utmost restraint.”

The US urged Burundians to “lay down arms, end the violence and show restraint”, while the EU warned it was “essential the situation does not spin out of control”.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, made an urgent appeal for calm, while the security council said it would hold an emergency meeting on the situation on Thursday.
Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the Hutu majority and a born-again Christian, believes he ascended to the presidency in 2005 with divine backing.
Opposition and rights groups say it is unconstitutional for him to run for more than two terms. The president, however, argues his first term did not count as he was elected by parliament, not directly by the people. This was supported by the constitutional court, although one of the judges fled the country, claiming its members received death threats.
More than 22 people have been killed and scores wounded since late April, when Burundi’s ruling CNDD-FDD party nominated Nkurunziza to stand for re-election in elections scheduled for 26 June. More than 50,000 Burundians have fled the violence to Rwanda and other neighbouring countries in recent weeks, with the UN preparing for thousands more refugees.
Dr Robert Besseling, principal Africa analyst at the London-based risk consultancy IHS, said: “While it is too early to confirm that the coup attempt has been successful, factional fighting between rival ethnic groups in the military and police is likely to erupt and increase the probability of a civil war. The highest risk of ethnic fighting over the next few days will be in Bujumbura, overpopulated rural areas and internally displaced people’s camps along the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzanian borders.
“The Imbonerakure, a youth militia affiliated to the CNDD-FDD, is likely to be deployed against ethnic Tutsi and to stage targeted political assassinations of Tutsi leaders and attacks on Tutsi groups. Retaliatory attacks by ethnic Tutsi are likely against government buildings and CNDD-FDD assets and supporters. Expatriates or foreign assets are less likely targets.”