3 dead amid protests against Burundian president's third term

Three people were killed on Thursday in three separate incidents in Burundi as protests against the third term of President Pierre Nkurunziza entered the tenth day, witnesses have said.

Two of them died in two different neighborhoods in the capital Bujumbura while the third one died at Gisozi in the province of Mwaro, some 50 km east of the Burundian capital Bujumbura.

"A protester like me died of his injuries after a group of Imbonerakure youths (Burundi's ruling party youths' wing) attacked us in Kinama neighborhood. They exploded a grenade and he died on the spot. Several others were injured," a witness who requested anonymity told Xinhua.

Another young man suspected to be an Imbonerakure was burned alive in Nyakabiga neighborhood after protesters suspected that he was a spy.

Witnesses told Xinhua that protesters suspected three persons and then burned one alive while another was injured, adding that the third one ran away.

The spokesman of the Burundian national police, who visited Nyakabiga where a young man had been burned alive, made a warning against the criminals, saying police agents are going to "change their approach" of managing demonstrations.

"We will not continue to tolerate such crimes. It is unacceptable. We are going to change our way of managing demonstrations. We have been staying outside Nyakabiga neighborhood, but now we will enter the neighborhood to supervise whatever is happening there," said Burundian National Police Spokesman Liboire Bakundukize in a press conference.

Bakundukize indicated that investigations have started to know circumstances in which the man was killed.

Radio Bonesha FM also reported that a secondary school pupil was shot dead by a policeman at Gisozi in the province of Mwaro (Burundi's center) during protests against Nkurunziza's third term.

Nkurunziza was designated by his party, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) on April 25, sparking disagreements within the opposition and some civil society organizations saying Nkurunziza' s nomination was a violation of the national constitution and the 2000 Arusha agreement that provide two terms of five years each for a president of Burundi.

On Tuesday, the Burundian constitutional court, however, passed the candidacy of Nkurunziza for the election.

In a message to the nation on Wednesday evening, Nkurunziza called on protesters to stop their demonstrations and pledged that if he is elected in the upcoming presidential election, it will be his "last" term.

Burundi is this year to hold general elections between May 26 and August 24, with the presidential election due on June 26.