Students fight police, storm US embassy over universities closure

fuad lawal

June 26, 2015 3:33 PM

Over two thousand Burundi students protesting the shutdown of Universities in the country are engaging the police.

Burundi students tackle police

Police authorities began an operation against the students on Thursday after they in front of the U.S. Embassy in gathered in the capital Bujumbura.

Burundi’s education ministry had on April 29 announced that all state universities were closed, sparking student unrest.

The students who started a camp outside the embassy say they want the US government to intervene as they try to reclaim their right to education.

But it seems the US authorities are in support of the police action joining in the attempt to evict them according to Philemon Ndikunkiko, a student quoted in a World Bulletin report.

“U.S. officials and Burundian police have removed our camp to prevent us from entering the parking area but we only demand a future,” Philemon Ndikunkiko, one of the students said.

According to reports, at least 500 students started to live in the camp but the police on Friday warned that it would use force to eject them if they refused to leave.

Police commissioner, Arcade Niyongere, said the students have refused to leave the embassy.

"They are inside the Embassy, sitting at the parking lot," he said.

Burundi has witnessed days of protests over President Pierre Nkurunziza's widely criticised decision to seek a third term

The east African nation only ended an ethnically charged civil war in 2005.

fuad lawal