Burundi's capital city plunged into further unrest on Tuesday amid escalating protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to seek a third term in office.
Demonstrations in the suburbs of Bujumbura turned violent after police fired tear gas and gunshots into the crowd. Witnesses claimed that three people were killed, two of them in a grenade blast.
Angry protesters then hit back by hurling stones at the police officers. A young policewoman, who the protesters suspected had opened fire on their friends, was briefly cornered and held by the crowd, but later rescued by his colleagues, with only minor injuries.
"Whichever policeman has a wife in this area should take her to the camp, they should not be coming here. And we can finish all the other police in this area, we only need to fear the army," a resident told CCTV on Tuesday.
Despite mounting pressure to postpone the country's June elections, Burundi's presidential spokesperson insists the elections will go on as scheduled.
"If you go beyond that date, the situation that is likely to happen is that there is a risk, there is a political vacuum in between the day when the president will be selected and the day when he is going to be serving as a result of the postponement. The constitutional court has made a ruling, saying that the application was valid," spokesman Gervais Abayeho told CCTV at an earlier interview.
Protests have swept the country almost daily since Nkurunziza announced his decision to run for a third term more than two weeks ago. The statesman also defied calls from the African Union, the European Union and the US to postpone the polls.
But some of the protesters interviewed say they would not back down either.
"They are killing people with bullets and grenades. But people are still going strong. They keep telling us to stop demonstrating, but we will not stop. We shall continue till the end and we are telling him these killings will not be of help to him," said a Bujumbura resident named Bukobere Ange.
"They have arrested our sons just because they were demonstrating, others are in hospital because they were shot. So we are collectively saying we do not supports his third term bid," said Angeline Nzeyimana, another resident.
Despite rising concerns that Burundi’s trouble could soon spread across the border into neighboring nations, Nkurunziza's adviser says these protests are limited to just one percent of the country.
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