A Burundian soldier has been killed after being shot in the heart by a police officer, says another trooper amid tensions between the two forces.

The killing took place on Wednesday during clashes with demonstrators on the streets of the capital, Bujumbura.

"A soldier has been killed, he was shot in the heart, it is a police officer who fired," the other trooper said.

Burundi has barely put behind a failed coup, when a top general tried to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza during the head of state’s visit to Tanzania.

The country has witnessed weeks-long protests against Nkurunziza’s attempt to contest a third term in office. More than 20 people have died in clashes with security forces.

The coup attempt saw soldiers battling each other on the streets. Currently, however, protesters consider the troops to be more neutral, while police have returned to try to quash protests.

Burundi, a small nation in Africa’s Great Lakes region, emerged in 2005 from a brutal 12-year civil war. In October 1993, Melchior Ndadaye, the first democratically-elected president of Burundi, who came from the Hutu ethnic group, was assassinated after only 100 days in office. The assassination triggered deadly ethnic violence between Hutus and Tutsis, another ethnic group in Burundi.  

Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the majority Hutu tribe, has been Burundi’s president for two legal five-year terms. His intention to seek a third term is viewed by the opponents as a clear violation of the constitution and the Arusha Agreements, which marked an end to the civil war. The two documents limit the president’s stay in office to two five-year terms.

The incumbent president, however, has rejected claims that he is violating the constitution by seeking to remain in power, arguing that he can still run for president as his rise to power after the civil war did not come through direct votes.

HN/GHN