Protesters burned a man alive in Burundi’s capital on Thursday, saying he was a member of the ruling party’s youth wing which had attacked them during their demonstrations against the president’s bid for a third term, a witness said.
Protesters have been on Bujumbura’s streets for almost two weeks, often hurling stones at police who they say have fired live rounds, which police deny.
Opponents of the government say the June 26 presidential election should be delayed by a few weeks because of unrest. President Pierre Nkurunziza’s spokesman said that was unnecessary as most of the country was calm.
The violence has plunged the African nation into its worst crisis since the end of a civil war in 2005 that pitted the ethnic Hutu majority against the Tutsi minority.
“They put tires around his neck and then burned him,” a witness told Reuters after seeing the man killed in the Nyakabiga district of Bujumbura.
Local media also reported the incident, while the Red Cross said a man was killed in Nyakabiga but, in line with its usual practice, did not say how he died. It said a woman was killed in another area on Thursday.
Protesters said the victim of the burning was a member of the Imbonerakure youth wing of the ruling CNDD-FDD party, which they say has attacked them. The government has repeatedly dismissed charges that Imbonerakure is fomenting violence.
