Burundi’s top court says president can run again, angering protesters
BUJUMBURA — Burundi’s constitutional court approved President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term in office on Tuesday, a ruling promptly dismissed as biased by opponents who said they would continue protests until he backed down.The opposition says Mr Nkurunziza’s plan to stand in a June election violates the constitution and a peace deal that ended a civil war that pitted the ethnic Hutu majority against the Tutsi minority from 1993 to 2005.More than a week of protests have plunged the African nation into its worst crisis since that conflict. Civil society groups say a dozen people have been killed, while more than 30,000 have fled to neighbouring states fearing renewed ethnic violence."The renewal of the presidential term through direct universal suffrage for five years is not against the constitution of Burundi," a constitutional court statement said.The government has urged protesters to accept the ruling and stop demonstrating. Mr Nkurunziza, a former Hutu rebel leader, h...
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