In a video, exclusive to IBTimes UK, protesters are saved by the arrival of foreign journalists after an army officer threatened to shoot protesters in the capital Bujumbura.

Protesters in Burundi defying President Pierre Nkurunziza by continuing to demonstrate against his decision to run for a third term, were on Monday 18 May met by heavily armed police and army officers and warned: "You march, we shoot".

In the video, filmed in the Musaga district of the capital, an army official threatens protesters, who are heard chanting anti-third term slogans.

A source explained: "There was this officer who wanted to shoot protesters, but international journalists (the only ones currently able to report) arrived and saved us."

Burundi has been rocked by a wave of protests and violence culminating in a short-lived coup d'etat on 13 May, after Nkurunziza announced his plans to extend his stay in office by seeking a third term. The coup d'etat was aborted after 24 hours and some of its leaders were arrested after surrendering.

Nkurunziza called for an end to the protests when he returned to the capital on Friday, but protests resumed in the district on Monday 18 May.

Burundi