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by Our Foreign Desk
THREE military and police generals were arrested yesterday over their involvement in Wednesday’s attempted coup in Burundi.
But coup leader Major General Godefroid Niyombare was still at large, with security forces searching for him.
With large sections of the military remaining loyal to the popularly elected government of President Pierre Nkurunziza, the coup appeared to be rapidly unravelling.
Mr Nkurunziza’s spokesman Gervais Abayeho said that former defence minister General Cyrille Ndayirukiye was one of the three arrested.
Gen Ndayirukiye had earlier admitted that the coup had failed in the face of “an overpowering military determination to support the system in power.”
Another senior military officer and a police general were said to be under arrest.
The streets of the capital Bujumbura were mostly calm yesterday after fighting on Thursday between troops loyal to the government and those supporting Gen Niyombare.
An anonymous official said that Mr Nkurunziza had returned from neighbouring Tanzania and been greeted by hordes of supporters as he returned to the presidential palace in the capital.
On Thursday the president saluted the police for their patriotism in the face of the coup.
However, NGOs were still urging people to go out and protest against the government yesterday. Gordien Niyungeko of one such rights organisation, Focode, said: “Our movement had nothing to do with the attempted coup or the failed coup.”
On Wednesday Mr Nkurunziza was lured out of the country on the promise of of talks with the opposition, only to be confronted with news of the coup on arrival.
Gen Niyombare’s pretext for the coup was weeks of violent opposition protests against the ruling CNDD-FDD party’s selection of Mr Nkurunziza as presidential candidate in elections set for June 26. The president has already served two five-year terms of office — the maximum permitted under the constitution — but the courts ruled that he could stand again.
The protests left 15 people dead and more than 105,000 Burundians have fled to neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania during the unrest.
