A Timeline of Events in Burundi (Part 6)

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• June 11: The government claims demonstrations are over, and the only ones remaining are organized by journalists.
• June 11: Agathon Rwasa announces he will boycott elections because they are unlikely to be free and fair.
• June 12: Rwasa sets conditions for his participation in the elections, saying if free media is restored and youths disarmed, he will submit his candidacy.
• June 12: Burundian singer Khadja Nin called on the international community to put more pressure on Nkurunziza to step aside.
• June 12: Rwandan Etienne Besabesa Mivumbu journalist, an employee of the Rwandan News Agency, is arrested. Burundian Interior Minister Eduoard Nduwimana says he lacked credentials, and was therefore arrested and charged with spying.
• June 13: The Burundian Parliament overwhelmingly approves Nkurunziza loyalists Annonciate Niyonkuru and Alice Nijimbere (both Tutsi) as new members of CENI. The opposition slams their induction.
• June 13: The head of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, urges rivals to engage in dialogue in Burundi.
• June 14: Member states discuss Burundi at the African Union summit in South Africa.
• June 14: The Ugandan and Tanzanian Foreign Ministers arrive in Bujumbura.
• June 15: The African Union Peace and Security Council issues a communiquéon Burundi that proposes a series of consultations led by President Kikwete and three observer missions to Burundi (human rights, militia disarmament, and elections). The communiqué did not comment on the electoral timetable.
• June 15: Opposition figures welcome the AU’s recommendations.
• June 15: Burundi’s ambassador to Rwanda, Alexis Ntukamazina, says that the arrest of Rwandan journalist Etienne Besabesa Mivumbu is nothing to worry about and that, “This is a normal procedure in all countries.”
• June 16: In a meeting with EAC leaders in Bujumbura, Nkurunziza refuses to back down on a third term.
• June 16: Mostly American academics address a letter to John Kerry pushing for a rejuvenated Burundi policy.
• June 16: A grenade attack in Bubanza kills one suspected member of the Imbonerakure.
• June 17: Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, head of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Incarcerated Persons, says a nationwide survey has found that 77 people have been killed and about 500 wounded since protests began in April.
• June 17: A spokesperson for the Arusha movement calls for citizens to begin an economic boycott in order to damage the government’s tax revenue.
• June 17: Six gunmen, reportedly dressed in military fatigues, storm a bar in Gasibe, Matana, Buriri Province, killing the owner Leonidas Ndikumagenge. Ndikumagenge was a CNDD-FDD representative.
• June 18: The two new members of CENI, Vice President Annonciate Niyonkuru and Commissioner for Finance Alice Nijimbere, are sworn in.
• June 18: Former President Domitien Ndayizye says the crisis will become more serious if Nkurunziza does get a third term.
• June 18: The Burundian government says it agrees “in principle” to the deployment of AU military advisors.
• June 18: Three people are injured in a grenade attack in downtown Bujumbura.
• June 19: Rwasa says he does not support the creation of a transitional government, but he will not boycott upcoming elections.
• June 19: Rwandan journalist Etienne Besabesa Mivumbi, who was being detained by Burundi authorities on spying charges, is freed.
• June 20: Eleven policemen are injured by nighttime grenade attacks in Bujumbura.
• June 20: Another grenade attack targets a school in Bujumbura, wounding a 15-year-old.
• June 21: The UN appoints its Special Representative for Central Africa, Senegalese Abdoulaye Bathily, as chief mediator in Burundi.
• June 22: A grenade attack in a bar in Ngozi kills four and injures twenty-seven. A separate attack injured a police officer in Bujumbura while a third injured two people outside a bank in Kirundo.
• June 22: EU Foreign Ministers warn that they may impose sanctions on those responsible for violence in Burundi.
• June 23: The CNDD-FDD announces it will boycott renewed, UN-mediated peace talks.
• June 23: Zambian President Edgar Lungu says that bad governance is what has caused Burundians to flee into Zambia.
• June 24: Bob Rugurika says the international community must act to halt Burundi from descending into chaos, including a potential military intervention.
• June 25: Burundi’s second Vice President, CNDD-FDD member Gervais Rufyikiri, flees the country, saying a 3rd term for Nkurunziza would be unconstitutional and that he had been threatened. Burundi’s National Assembly Speaker Pie Ntavyohanyuma also flees to Belgium.
• June 25: Burundian students seeking to escape police, force their way onto the US Embassy grounds.
• June 26: Burundi’s ambassador to the UN Albert Shingiro says elections will go ahead as planned.
• June 26: Ban Ki-moon urges Burundian authorities to delay elections.
• June 26: Seventeen opposition parties, including FRODEBU, announce their intention to boycott elections.
• June 26: The number of refugees reaches 127,000.
• June 26: Two grenade attacks strike Bujumbura, but no one is hurt.
• June 27: In Ntega, unidentified attackers torch a polling station. They manage to escape despite soldiers firing shots.
• June 28: Two civilians and one soldier die in two separate grenade attacks in Bujumbura. The attacks happened in the Jade and Kanyosha neighborhoods.