News Analysis: Political situation in Burundi at turning point with coup attempt

A coup attempt to overthrow Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza shadowed an ongoing regional summit dedicated to finding a lasting solution and helping restore calm in the tiny East African nation.

The summit brought together all heads of state from member nations of the East African Community (EAC), including Nkurunziza, as well as members of Burundi's opposition group.

"A newly created committee for the establishment of national concord has decided that President Nkurunziza is dismissed, his government is dismissed too," Godefroy Niyombare, a top Burundian general sacked from the powerful position of intelligence chief in February, said Wednesday.

He added that he was working with civil society groups, religious leaders and politicians to form a transitional government.

The president's office responded by saying that the situation was "under control" and that the coup attempt had failed.

However, coup supporters rejected the government's words, saying they have controlled facilities including Bujumbura's international airport.

In the early hours of Thursday, intensive infighting broke out between government troops and coup soldiers around the state broadcaster in the Burundian capital, according to witnesses.

Burundi is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections in May and then presidential elections in June. But tension has been high ahead of the polls, exacerbated by Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term in violation of the Arusha peace and reconciliation deal that brought the country's civil war to an end in 2005.

Pre-election campaigns in Burundi have become associated with threats and violence, Omar Halfani, a political analyst who is also a lecturer in political science at University of Rwanda, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

"In the current period of presidential runoff, many local residents were killed or assaulted by militias, sometimes in police uniform, who attacked protestors with clubs and machetes and even grenades for demonstrating or belonging to the opposition," Halfani said.

So far, at least 17 people, including demonstrators and policemen, have been killed in violence ahead of the elections.

Nkurunziza has been criticized at several occasions by its peers including Rwandan President Paul Kagame who said that when "your own citizens tell you 'we do not want you to do that or to lead us', maybe they are saying you haven't done enough for them."

Some Rwandan officials believe the whole East African region needs to stand up and condemn violence and chaos that are ravaging Burundi ahead of the presidential elections.

Besides the current security situation in Burundi, Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo has also expressed serious concern over the deteriorating political situation in the country, worrying that the Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could enjoy the current chaos to destabilize Rwanda. Endi