Burundi army general behind failed coup threatens armed uprising to overthrow president

A Burundian general, who backed a failed coup attempt in May, has threatened an armed uprising after President Pierre Nkurunziza refused to abandon his bid for a controversial third term.

General Leonard Ngendakumana, a deputy to the leader of the aborted coup, accused Nkurunziza of dragging Burundi back into civil war.

Burundi has a dark history of ethnic war and the general’s comments are causing fear and panic in the East Africam country.

"The next [step] is to organise ourselves just to resist, to make Pierre Nkurunziza understand that he must leave and then that we are prepared to do it by force, by organising a military force," Ngendakumana told Kenya's KTN television.

He added that that coup, leader General Godefroid Niyombare, was still in Burundi.

Meanwhile, the government told Reuters news agency any armed opposition would be confronted.

"Anybody threatening the security of Burundi, either inside or outside, will meet the full force of our defence and security forces," presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho said.

For his part, Ngendakumana said Burundi's government wanted "to engage the region in that civil war, based on ethnic issues".

Neighbouring East African nations have jointly called for the July 15 Burundi presidential election to be delayed to July 30, to allow mediation between opposing factions.

The government has dismissed previous calls for delays.

Opponents argue Nkurunziza's bid for a third term, which triggered weeks of violent clashes between protesters and police in Burundi's capital, violates the constitution and a peace deal that ended an ethnically charged civil conflict in 2005.

The Arusha peace accords ended a 12-year conflict that pitted rebel groups of the majority Hutus, including one led by Nkurunziza, against minority Tutsis, which commanded the army at the time.