Bujumbura, Burundi - Burundian students broke into the US embassy to escape police Thursday as one of the country's vice presidents announced he had fled to Belgium, escalating a political crisis in the central African nation days before key elections.
Ignoring armed US Marines watching from the roof of the mission in the capital Bujumbura, around 200 students climbed under the gate and over the wall, then sat down inside the compound with their hands raised.
The students sought refuge after police threatened to break up their camp outside the embassy compound where they had been sheltering for weeks, an AFP photographer said.
The US embassy urged the government to find a "peaceful resolution," but US Ambassador Dawn Liberi later managed to convince the students to leave peacefully, with some returning to again camp outside the mission.
"The US ambassador came to see us and told us she had done everything to help us, but that we couldn't spend the night in the embassy," said one of the students, who gave his name as Fabrice.
Bujumbura has been in turmoil since late April, when President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a controversial bid for a third consecutive term, triggering widespread protests and a failed coup attempt.
Two grenade blasts in Bujumbura on Thursday wounded at least eight people, the latest in a string of such attacks since the unrest began.
Parliamentary elections are due to be held on Monday, ahead of the presidential vote on July 15.
Nkurunziza on Thursday launched his presidential election campaign, watched by thousands of cheering loyalists, but his bid was dealt a fresh blow after one of his top deputies fled the country and urged him to quit power.
In a letter addressed to Nkurunziza, second vice-president Gervais Rufyikiri told the president to "put the interests of the Burundian people before your personal interests."
"Withdraw your presidential bid, because it violates the constitution," the letter said.
Rufyikiri told France 24 television he had sought refuge in Belgium.
"I left... because I was not able to continue to support the attitude of the president, his desire to lead the people of Burundi on the path of illegality," he told the broadcaster late Wednesday from Belgium.
Nkurunziza's re-election bid has been branded by opponents as unconstitutional and a violation of a peace deal that paved the way to end 13 years of civil war in 2006, raising fears that the current crisis could plunge the country back into widespread violence.
AFP
