Burundi’s 2nd VP slams president, flees country
Burundi's second vice president, Gervais Rufyikiri, has fled the country, denouncing President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid to extend his stay in power for a third term.
Gervais Rufyikiri is now believed to be in Belgium, according to reports.
Back home in Burundi, the president’s office has told media that Rufyikiri was on a mission there just a few days ago before coming back and then fleeing the country.
On Wednesday, Rufyikiri told France 24 television that he is against what he called the president's "illegal third term."
The African nation has been witnessing political turmoil since earlier this year when the president of Burundi announced his intention to run for another term in office.
Nkurunziza's bid for re-election sparked violent protests in the capital, Bujumbura, that triggered a failed coup attempt last month.
Some members of the Burundian army attempted a coup against the government on May 13, but failed when several of them were arrested by forces loyal to Nkurunziza.
Burundi's Foreign Minister Alain Aimé Nyamitwe, who was in Washington on an official trip, told reporters, “I believe that it is not correct to say that the president would intentionally want to plunge the country into chaos."
"The man has been at the helm of the nation since 2005, and since he came to power, we all know and history has recorded that he has pacified the country, put the country together, has modernized the country, has spearheaded reform," he added.
The presidential election is now scheduled for July 15, after being postponed because of the protests that followed the country’s president’s re-election bid.
Dozens of people have died and scores more have been injured in the country since protests began against Nkurunziza’s new bid for president, which was seen by opponents as unconstitutional.
More than 100,000 Burundians have fled to neighboring countries because of the unrest in their country.
Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader coming from the majority Hutu tribe, has been Burundi’s leader for two legal five-year terms.
In October 1993, Melchior Ndadaye, the first democratically-elected president of Burundi was assassinated after only 100 days in office, leading to deadly ethnic violence between the Hutu majority and minority Tutsis. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the African nation's civil war that ended in 2006.
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