UPDATE: Burundi’s Ex-Intelligence Chief Announces Coup Amid Protests

Niyombare’s announcement follows more than two weeks of protests in the East African nation over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s plan to seek a third term in office. Photo: Desire Hatunga/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Burundi’s former head of intelligence declared a coup in the East African nation after more than two weeks of protests sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s plan to seek a third term in office.

“Burundian President Nkurunziza is no longer president,” Major-General Godefroid Niyombare said in a broadcast on state radio in the capital, Bujumbura, on Wednesday. “The government is dissolved, permanent secretaries of ministries will ensure” day-to-day business, he said.

Reuters reports:

Niyombare’s announcement came after the army surrounded the offices of state radio in the capital. Police earlier fired live bullets and tear gas at demonstrators who tried to storm parliament and attacked one of the offices of the ruling party. Nkurunziza is scheduled to attend a summit of regional leaders in Tanzania on Wednesday to discuss the political crisis in Burundi.

Protests erupted in Burundi on April 26 after Nkurunziza’s CNDD-FDD party nominated him to run in a presidential vote set for June 26. At least 20 people have died in the violence, according to Pacifique Nininahazwe, head of the Forum for Conscience and Development advocacy group. Critics of Nkurunziza say he’ll flout a two-term limit by running in the elections. The president’s supporters argue that he’s only been popularly elected once because his first term was an appointment by parliament.

Niyombare was removed as intelligence chief by Nkurunziza in mid-February after only three months in the post. No reason was given for the decision, which Radio France Internationale reported at the time may have stemmed from his opposition to the president seeking a third term. He had previously served as chief of staff of the country’s defense force.

BBC reports Gen Niyombareh, in a statement read to reporters in a military base, said he did not recognise the leadership because the president's bid for a third term violated the constitution.

Soldiers surrounded the offices of the national broadcaster in the capital, Bujumbura.

In a radio broadcast, Gen Niyombareh said: "The masses have decided to take into their own hands the destiny of the nation to remedy this unconstitutional environment into which Burundi has been plunged.

"The masses vigorously and tenaciously reject President Nkurunziza's third-term mandate... President Pierre Nkurunziza has been relieved of his duties. The government is overthrown."

Gen Niyombareh's "national salvation committee" comprises at least five other army and police generals.

He said in the radio broadcast that the mission of the body was the "restoration of national unity... and the resumption of the electoral process in a peaceful and fair environment".

One witness told Reuters that crowds who had earlier been out on the streets of the capital protesting against the president were now cheering and celebrating his apparent dismissal.