Burundi prez’s defiant bid for power amid UN warnings

 Burundi’s government defied opposition demands on Tuesday for President Pierre Nkurunziza to end a third-term bid for power, as the UN warned the country risked being “catapulted” back into civil war.

“This decision is <g data-gr-id="14">non negotiable</g>,” government spokesman Philippe Nzobonariba said in a radio broadcast, dismissing opposition demands the president step down.

The government said the electoral commission’s proposal to delay the presidential election until July 15 was the final time polls would be postponed. Around 40 people have died and scores more have been injured in protests that began when Nkurunziza announced in late April that he would stand again, after Burundi’s constitutional court gave him the green light.

The UN human rights chief on today warned that increasing violence by a pro-government militia, including executions, abductions and torture, was threatening to destabilise further the crisis-wracked central African nation. “They could tip an already extremely tense situation over the edge,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

“The last thing Burundi needs after a decade of gradual and largely successful peace-building is to be catapulted back into civil war because of a small number of people’s ruthless determination to retain, or gain, power at any cost,” he added.