Gashora, Rwanda--Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the Hutu majority, has been in power for a decade and has so far defied international pressure to withdraw from next month's election.
Beyond the street protests challenging Nkurunziza's third-term bid, the bigger worry is that the current crisis could jeopardise the Arusha Agreement, which brought peace to Burundi.
The deal included an ethnic power-sharing formula that helped end the war between the mostly Tutsi army and predominately Hutu rebel groups.
UN refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards said those fleeing recounted "harassment and intimidation by Imbonerakure youth militants, who paint red marks on homes of people to be targeted".
Since early April over 50,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled Burundi with at least half of them going to Rwanda, according to the UN refugee agency.
Almost 18,000 have fled to Tanzania and 8,000 to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Imbonerakure, a Hutu group affiliated with the CNDD-FDD rebels turned ruling party, has a bloody reputation: in February, Human Rights Watch accused security forces and the Imbonerakure of together executing at least 47 rebel fighters who had surrendered.
Members of the youth wing were accused of beating to death those prisoners who were not shot, of throwing others off a cliff and of helping to hide bodies in mass graves.
AFP
