3 killed in double grenade attack in Burundi capital: Police

At least three people have lost their lives and a number of others have been wounded in Burundi after unknown assailants threw two grenades into a market in the capital Bujumbura, police say.

On Friday, "two grenades exploded in the city center. ... They killed three people and injured several others, probably more than a dozen," said deputy police chief of the Central African nation, General Godefroid Bizimana.

The victims’ bodies were reportedly lying in the pools of blood on the pavement following the raid.

"Those who did this had the intention to kill; because the grenades were thrown among women selling fruits in a big crowd," Bizimana stated, adding, "Unfortunately we did not arrest the perpetrators of this attack."

The grenade attacks were the latest in a series of violent incidents in the country, which has witnessed weeks-long protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term in power. More than 20 people have died in clashes with security forces, which began in late April.

Burundi has barely put behind a failed coup, when Major General Godefroid Niyombare, a former intelligence chief, tried to overthrow Nkurunziza during the president’s visit to Tanzania earlier this month. The coup attempt saw soldiers battling each other on the streets.

Burundi, a small nation in Africa’s Great Lakes region, emerged in 2005 from a brutal 12-year civil war. In October 1993, Melchior Ndadaye, the first democratically-elected president of Burundi who came from the Hutu ethnic group, was assassinated after only 100 days in office. The assassination triggered deadly ethnic violence between Hutus and Tutsis, another ethnic group in Burundi.

Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the majority Hutu tribe, has been Burundi’s president for two legal five-year terms.

His intention to seek a third term in the June 26 presidential election is viewed by the opponents as a clear violation of the constitution and the Arusha Agreements, which marked an end to the civil war. The two documents limit the president’s stay in office to two five-year terms.

The incumbent president, however, has rejected claims that he is violating the constitution by seeking to remain in power, arguing that he can still run for president as his rise to power after the civil war did not come through direct votes.

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