Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bujumbura (Agenzia Fides) - "The army is preventing the police to launch tear gas against protesters", say local sources to Agenzia Fides from the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, where since yesterday there have been demonstrations against the nomination of outgoing President, Pierre Nkurunziza, regarding the June elections, in violation of the Constitution which provides only two presidential terms.
"From what we have managed to see, there are about 15,000 protesters" report Fides sources that for security reasons have asked to remain anonymous. "Schools and universities are closed, as well as shops in the center, which is a dead zone. The protests are concentrated in the suburbs. In a neighborhood there are two thousand people, in another three thousand.
"The police cannot contain the demonstrations" our sources say, according to whom since yesterday five people have died in clashes with the police.
The fact that the military are in fact sided with the protesters, preventing the police to use tear gas, is interpreted by our sources like this: "The majority of the army is against the third term because it goes against the Constitution, according to the Arusha agreements, which put an end to the civil war". Even the Bishops of Burundi had expressed opposition to a possible third term of Nkurunziza (see Fides 07/03/2015). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 27/04/2015)
