Gen Niyombare delivers his radio address to the nation
(BBC News) — Rival groups of soldiers in Burundi are vying for control of the capital Bujumbura amid confusion over the success of an attempted coup.
Heavy fighting and shelling is reported at the state TV building.
A senior military source says soldiers loyal to President Pierre Nkurunziza are back in control of key parts of the city, including the airport. Coup leaders insist they remain in charge.
Mr Nkurunziza has ruled out delaying next month’s elections
The unrest began when Mr Nkurunziza announced he was seeking a third term.
Opponents say the bid contravenes the constitution.
Witnesses in Bujumbura say they heard heavy fighting overnight between troops loyal to the president and those who backed the coup, but it is unclear who is in control.
“We didn’t sleep at night because of fear…. a lot of explosions and gunshots can be heard everywhere… and people are scared,” one witness told the BBC.
One senior military source told BBC Afrique that loyalist troops had seized back full control of the presidential palace, the national radio and television station, the airport and the centre of Bujumbura.
BBC correspondents there say the streets seem to be mainly in the control of loyalist police, and the airport has reportedly re-opened which would appear to confirm reports it too is in loyalist hands.
But heavy fighting continues around the state radio and television broadcaster RNTB, with troops loyal to the coup spotted trying to gain entry into the building.
Control over the national broadcaster is key because it is the only outlet still broadcasting outside the capital, the BBC’s Maud Jullien reports.
The two private radio stations have been shut down. The most popular – Radio Publique Africaine – was burnt down overnight after broadcasting Gen Niyobare’s coup announcement.
Both the army’s chief of staff and President Nkurunziza have claimed that the coup attempt has been halted.
But this has been contradicted by the coup leaders, one of whom said they were in control of “virtually the entire city” of Bujumbura.
“The soldiers who are being deployed are on our side,” coup spokesman Venon Ndabaneze also told the AFP news agency.
Sporadic gunfire is still being heard in parts of Bujumbura and many business premises have remained closed this morning.
Roads have been barricaded and only a few vehicles are on the empty streets, mainly emergency service vehicles attending to those injured in the on-and-off shooting.
In one neighbourhood, the BBC saw angry crowds of young men asking police on patrol to leave. The men, most of them casual labourers, said they had been unable to make it to work because of restrictions on their movements.
Commodities are running out. Petrol has become scarce and where it is in stock there are long queues.
The coup was announced by Maj Gen Godefroid Niyombare, a former intelligence chief and ally of the president, on Wednesday.
“The masses vigorously and tenaciously reject President Nkurunziza’s third-term mandate. President Pierre Nkurunziza has been relieved of his duties,” he said in a radio broadcast.
Thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate the announcement, marching on the centre of Bujumbura alongside soldiers and two tanks.
Gen Niyombare made the announcement hours after the president flew to the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam for a summit with other East African leaders to discuss the election crisis.
He reportedly tried to fly back to Burundi upon learning of the coup, but had to return to Dar es Salaam after finding the airport at Bujumbura closed.
A senior Tanzanian presidential security official earlier told the AFP that President Nkurunziza was at a secret location in Dar es Salaam, but it is not clear if he is still there.
President Nkurunziza’s fellow leaders at the summit in Tanzania have condemned the coup.
The UN and US has urged all sides to show restraint.
The unrest began on 26 April after the 51-year-old president said he would run for re-election in June.
He argued that he was entitled to a third term because he was first appointed to the role by parliament in 2005, rather than be elected.
The constitution states a president can only be elected to two terms in office, but earlier this month the country’s constitutional court upheld Mr Nkurunziza’s interpretation.
More than 20 people have died and tens of thousands of Burundians have fled to neighbouring states since the unrest began.
Coup bid leader: Gen Godefroid Niyombare, 46
BBC
The signs of heavy fighting are seen over Bujumbura
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