"He has been arrested. He didn't surrender," presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho reportedly said.
Update as of 7:06 a.m. EDT: The U.S.
Embassy in Burundi said it will evacuate non-emergency personnel and
families of staff after a failed coup
attempt against President Pierre
Nkurunziza, Reuters reported.
Original story:
The coup in Burundi appeared to be defeated on Friday when
forces loyal to President Pierre Nkurunziza said they had arrested
several of the coup leaders and the president said he had returned to
the country.
Three renegade military officials who had backed General
Godefroid Niyombare’s attempt to overthrow Nkurunziza had been arrested,
BBC reported. Niyombare himself was "still on the run," according to an unnamed presidential spokesman.
Niyombare had told Agence France-Presse on Friday that he and other coup members were going to surrender, adding: "I hope they won't kill us.”
Late Thursday, Nkurunziza announced
on Twitter that he had returned to the country, but his location was
unclear. He had earlier been taken to a secret location in Tanzania
after his return flight was blocked when coup forces seized a Burundian
airport.
"I thank the army and police for their patriotism. Above all I thank Burundians for their patience," he wrote on Twitter.
Spokesman Gervais Abayeho confirmed the president’s return
and said that Nkurunziza would continue running for reelection. "The
president is in a good mood, he doesn't see any problem at all. He's
been elected by the people, he's going to run again," he said, the BBC
reported.
Nkurunziza was nominated for a third term, which critics denounced as unconstitutional, and Niyombare launched the coup attempt on Wednesday while the president was in Tanzania for a meeting, following weeks of protests in the country.
Five soldiers were killed in the capital of Bujumbura in clashes on Thursday. Loyalists and pro-coup forces battled
for control of the country’s national broadcaster. Burundian Chief of
Staff Major-General Prime Niyongabo had called on the coup forces to
stand down, insisting that the army did not have any say in Nkurunziza’s
nomination, the BBC reported Thursday.
“Burundi is a democratic nation. The army does not interfere in politics. We are obliged to follow the constitution," he said.
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