At least four people were killed on Friday when gunmen ambushed the Burundian army’s chief of
staff in a failed assassination attempt.

According to a morgue source, three soldiers and three gunmen
were killed in the early morning attack in the capital Bujumbura.

The source said that an army pick-up brought four bodies to the morgue. However, the main target
Gen. Prime Niyongabo survived the
attack. Niyongabo is the highest-ranking official to be targeted in a series of attacks on officials since
April when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he was seeking a third term.

Nkurunziza’s relection bid continue to raise tension as the opposition says it will violate the constitution
and a peace deal that ended an ethnically charged civil war in 2005.

Earlier this week, gunmen shot dead an opposition official and in August Gen. Adolphe Nshimirimana, who was in charge of the president’s personal security, was killed in an ambush.

Nkurunziza was sworn in on Aug. 20 for another five-year term after his party won a sweeping victory in a parliamentary election that the EU and US said was not free or fair