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Nearly 127 000 Burundians have registered as refugees in neighbouring countries and many more have likely fled under the radar from the troubled central African nation, the United Nations said on Friday.

Since Burundi’s political turmoil started in April, the UN refugee agency said it had seen 62 000 Burundians register as refugees in neighbouring Tanzania, 45 000 in Rwanda, 10 590 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 8 855 in Uganda and 400 in Zambia.

“Many more Burundians are thought to have left the country but have not registered as refugees,” UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva.

The exodus has come as around 70 people have been killed in weeks of brutally suppressed street protests.