A Burundi army soldier riding in an armored vehicle raises his gun in the air as he joins demonstrators celebrating what they perceive to be an attempted military coup d'etat, in the capital Bujumbura, Burundi Wednesday, May 13, 2015. (AP Photo) An attempt to overthrow Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza ended in failure on Friday as coup leaders admitted defeat and were arrested or hunted down by loyalist troops.
General Godefroid Niyombare, who launched the coup in the central African nation earlier in the week, told AFP by telephone that he wanted to give himself up, and said soldiers supporting the president were approaching him.
“We have decided to surrender,” he said. “I hope they won’t kill us.”
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It was not immediately clear if he was arrested or killed.
The coup leaders’ spokesman, Venon Ndabaneze, was also speaking to AFP confirming that the putschists had decided to surrender when loyalist troops arrested him, deputy coup leader Cyrille Ndayirukiye and another senior figure among the mutineers.
“We decided to give ourselves up. We have laid down our arms. We have called the security ministry to tell them we no longer have any arms,” Ndabaneze said, seconds before he could be heard being arrested.
AFP remained on the line as the leaders were detained.
The dramatic end to the coup attempt came shortly after the presidency announced that Nkurunziza — who was abroad when the coup was declared — had returned to the country.
He was in neighbouring Tanzania for regional talks Wednesday when Niyombare launched the coup, in a culmination of weeks of violent street protests against the president’s bid to seek a third term.
Another coup leader, General Cyrille Ndayirukiye, said the rebels had been “faced with an overpowering military determination to support the system in power”.
The coup attempt had raised fears of a return to widespread violence in the impoverished country, which is still recovering from a 13-year civil war that ended in 2006 and left hundreds of thousands dead.
On Thursday, loyalist troops fought off two major attacks by rival soldiers in an intense battle for control over then strategically important state broadcaster.
The fight for RTNB, the state radio and television broadcaster, was seen as crucial to control the flow of information as Burundi’s main private radio stations and the largest independent television channel were no longer broadcasting. The influential African Public Radio station was even set ablaze after being hit by a rocket.