Almost 40,000 Flee Burundi Amid Political Crisis

A protester carries a placard as they chant anti-government slogans during demonstrations against the ruling CNDD-FDD party's decision to allow Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third five-year term in office, in Bujumbura, May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Jean Pierre Aime Harerimana
A protester carries a placard as they chant anti-government slogans during demonstrations against the ruling CNDD-FDD party’s decision to allow Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third five-year term in office, in Bujumbura, May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Jean Pierre Aime Harerimana

Up to 40,000 refugees have fled Burundi to neighboring Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last month, amid protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term, the United Nations said on Wednesday. Reuters report:

A total of 16 people were injured in protests held in different parts of the capital on Wednesday, the Burundi Red Cross said. More than a week of demonstrations have plunged the African nation into its worst crisis since an ethnically charged civil war ended in 2005. Civil society groups say a dozen people have been killed. Police say the death toll is half that number.

The opposition says Burundi’s constitution and a peace deal that ended the civil war limits Nkurunziza to two terms. But Burundi’s constitutional court this week cleared the way for the president to run again in June, saying his first term did not count because he was picked by parliament not publicly elected.

Chauvineau Mugwengezo, spokesman for the alliance for Democratic Change, a coalition of five opposition parties rejecting Nkurunziza’s bid for the third term, accused their opponents of causing most of Wednesday’s injuries.