A Burundian general who backed a failed coup in May has threatened to launch an armed uprising against President Pierre Nkurunziza.
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Burundi coup general threatens force to oust president
Leonard Ngendakumana threatens to launch armed uprising after Pierre Nkurunziza refuses to abandon bid for re-election.
In an effort to ease tensions, African leaders have called for the July 15 Burundi presidential polls to be delayed to July 30 [AP]
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This comes after President Nkurunziza refused to bow to opposition and international demands to abandon his bid for a third term.
General Leonard Ngendakumana who is a deputy to the leader of the aborted coup, has accused Nkurunziza of dragging the central African country back into civil war, comments that have alarmed a region with a long history of ethnic conflict.
"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, adding that coup leader General Godefroid Niyombare was still in Burundi.
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The government told the Reuters news agency that any such move 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.
Ngendakumana said Burundi's government wanted "to engage the region in that civil war, based on ethnic [issues]".
The general's interview was recorded on Sunday in an undisclosed location outside Burundi before Monday's meeting in Tanzania of east African states, plus South Africa, who are seeking to end the crisis.
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