BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) – With protesters in Burundi refusing to back down, government ministers from East African Community nations travelled to Burundi on Wednesday to help seek a solution to unrest caused by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term.
In the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, roads were barricaded with trees as protests continued for the second week. In Kinondo area of Bujumbura, police fired shots into the air to disperse demonstrators who had been staging a sit in.
Ministers from Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda travelled to Burundi to try to end the crisis said, Edwin Limo, a spokesman of Kenya’s foreign ministry.
Vladimir Monteriro, a U.N. press officer in Bujumbura, said a U.N.-facilitated meeting between government, opposition and civil society started Tuesday.
Burundi’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday validated the president’s controversial bid for a third term but the deputy president of the court, who fled to Rwanda ahead of the ruling, called it unconstitutional.