Editor,

Allow me to react to the article, "Burundian refugee daily arrivals hit 3,000” (The New Times, April 26).

It is incredible the extent to which some African politicians will go to hold on to power. President Pierre Nkurunziza and his supporters should have understood that Burundi would come to this pass the moment his efforts to amend his country’s constitution to give himself the right to stand again ran into so much opposition.

Having failed to change the Burundi Constitution through constitutionally-mandated means, his candidacy is therefore extra-constitutional and can only add more powder to the political and social fire.

Does the CNDD-FDD believe retaining Nkurunziza in power unconstitutionally to be worth the cost to Burundi and its people? What exactly has he achieved for the country that makes him so irreplaceable they are prepared to override the constitution and let loose the dogs of civil war?

Mwene Kalinda