The reported death comes amid high tensions between the police and army in the wake of a failed coup by a top general
Burundian police shot dead a soldier during clashes with demonstrators on the streets of the capital Bujumbura on Wednesday, a witness and soldier said, amid high tensions between the two forces in the wake of a failed coup by a top general.
“A soldier has been killed, he was shot in the heart, it is a police officer who fired,” a soldier told AFP. For the past week since the coup attempt by a military cabal, it has been the army – largely seen as more neutral than the police – that has tried to stem anti-government protests. But police on Wednesday returned to the streets.
In the capital Bujumbura, hundreds defied government orders to call off their protests, marching through the streets singing and demanding President Pierre Nkurunziza abandon his bid for a third term in power. At least 20 people have died in weeks of clashes with security forces that halted during the coup attempt as soldiers instead battled each other on the streets of the capital. But the protests resumed on Monday after the coup leaders surrendered.
