BUJUMBURA: Burundian students broke into the US embassy to escape police on 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 US mission, around 200 students climbed under the gate and over the wall before sitting 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, a photographer said.

By late afternoon, the US embassy said around “approximately 100 students peacefully remain in the visitor parking lot,” and urged the government to find a “peaceful resolution”.

Two grenade blasts in the capital Bujumbura on Thursday wounded at least eight people, the latest in a string of such attacks since late April, when President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a controversial bid to stand for a third consecutive term.

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 to 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, whose re-election bid has already sparked weeks of civil unrest, a refugee crisis and a coup attempt, second vice-president Gervais Rufyikiri urged 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.—AFP

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2015

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