BUJUMBURA, Burundi
A Burundian police officer was killed and three university students were injured in separate grenade attacks early Friday in Musaga, south Bujumbura, Burundi’s deputy police spokesman said.
Pierre Nkwirikiye said a police officer was killed in clashes between security services and students who have been protesting the shutdown of universities across the country.
Three students were injured in similar clashes in another district of the capital, Nkwirikiye said.
"We have not identified the perpetrators yet," the spokesman said.
Burundian police started an operation Thursday against at least 2,000 university students.
On April 29, the country’s education ministry announced that all state universities were to be closed amid rising tensions in late April after President Pierre Nkurunziza announced that he would seek a third term in office.
Protests against this announcement forced the government to postpone its parliamentary and presidential elections by nearly two months.
Abdoulaye Bathily, who was appointed by the United Nations to facilitate talks between rival political factions in Burundi, proposed Thursday "a postponement of all elections to the end of July" in order to resolve the political and security crises.
The ruling party, however, rejected the proposal leading the opposition to declare its boycott of the elections.
Burundi has been rocked by protest since the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy named President Pierre Nkurunziza – in power since 2005 – its candidate for the June presidential polls.
The situation took a turn for the worse earlier last May when a group of army generals staged a failed coup attempt against Nkurunziza while he was attending a regional summit in Tanzania.
The opposition says Nkurunziza does not have the right to seek a third term, citing Burundi's constitution, which limits the number of terms a president can serve to two.
However, Burundi's Constitutional Court recently ruled that Nkurunziza's third-term bid would not violate the constitution.
The court ruled that, since he was elected in 2005 by parliament and not by the people, Nkurunziza's first stint in office should not be counted as a first presidential term per se.
