{A prominent Burundian human rights activist has been shot and wounded in the capital, Bujumbura, raising tensions in the country after months of political unrest.}
Unidentified gunmen attacked Pierre Claver Mbonimpa on Monday evening on a street in the north of the city, Jean Nduwimana, president of the Association for Youth Against Violence, said in a phone interview.
He didn’t provide a full account of the assault. It’s believed that Mbonimpa’s injuries aren’t life threatening, said Nduwimana.
The incident comes a day after General Adolphe Nshimirimana, Burundi’s former head of intelligence and an adviser to President Pierre Nkurunziza, was assassinated in Bujumbura by a group of unidentified attackers.
His death sparked condemnation from the U.S. and an appeal for calm from the African Union, which warned against revenge attacks.
The country has been in turmoil since April when Nkurunziza announced he would seek a third term, sparking street protests and clashes with security forces that left at least 77 people dead and drove another 180,000 across the border.
The United Nations and U.S. have said the elections won by Nkurunziza last month weren’t fair or credible.
Opponents of Nkurunziza, including Mbonimpa, say by seeking re-election he violated a two-term limit set out in peace accords that ended a 12-year civil war in 2005.
In the lead-up to the vote, Mbonimpa said he went into hiding after getting death threats. He was arrested and detained for three months last year after calling for an investigation into reports that armed youth aligned with the ruling party were being trained in Democratic Republic of Congo before the elections.
The government denied those accusations.
Burundi, about the size of the U.S. state of Maryland, has a $2.7 billion economy and is home to 10.2 million people. It’s the continent’s seventh-biggest coffee exporter and holds 6 percent of the world’s nickel reserves.
{{Bloomberg}}
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