Burundi: President Says Third Term Would Be His Last
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Version 0 of 1. Burundi’s president, confronted by protests that have left a dozen people reported dead and driven thousands to flee the country, said Wednesday that if he is re-elected next month, he will not run for office again. The protests were set off by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s recent decision to run for a third term, which the protesters say violates a constitutional limit of two terms. On Wednesday, he promised “peaceful, fair and inclusive” elections and called for the demonstrations to end immediately. The issue has plunged Burundi into its worst crisis since the end of a lengthy civil war more than 10 years ago. Nearly 40,000 Burundians have fled to neighboring countries in the past month as tensions have risen over Mr. Nkurunziza’s bid, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said. The tensions particularly worry Rwanda, which has the same ethnic mix as Burundi and suffered a 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 people. |