CRI听力:Burundi Opposition Figure Zedi Feruzi Shot Dead

The body of Zedi Feruzi, the head of a small opposition group in Burundi, was found outside his home in the capital Bujumbura on Saturday. The bullet-riddled body of his bodyguard was found lying next to him.

The killings are another chilling reminder of the violence that has gripped this tiny country in Sub-Saharan Africa in the past month.

Eye witnesses say that there were government soldiers present in the neighborhood at the time of the killing, but they chose to turn a blind eye.

"I was like 10 to 15 meters away when I heard shots being fired, we didn't know what it was. I got there and found out it was my neighbor who had been killed and it's someone big. He is the leader of the Union for Peace and Development, he was opposed to the President, he was against the third term, and I think they killed him like this because of that."

Trouble began in Burundi in April when President Nkurunziza announced that he would run for a third term.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets saying the former rebel leader, who has been in power for nearly a decade, was not entitled to do so.

Critics say the President's decision violates a peace accord - the Arusha agreement - that ended a brutal civil war which had claimed the lives of more than 300,000 civilians. Two weeks ago an army general even attempted to seize power while the president was in Tanzania. The coup was crushed in just two days.

Nkurunziza has since unleashed a wave of violence, crushing dissidents. The streets of Bujumbura have become the scene of bloody battles as waves of protesters continue to clash with the army and militias loyal to the president.

The unrest has also seen more than 200,000 people flee to neighboring countries, mainly Tanzania.

Refugees say they are afraid that the unrest may lead to another full blown civil war.

"The biggest reason that made me decide to run away is that Pierre Njurunziza decided that he wanted to be in power for 15 years, while in the Arusha agreement he had agreed on 10 years. I saw that things were getting a bit bad when he decided to run for another term. As the election date draws nearer, I think we are going to see more violence and I decided that we flee before things get bad."

Burundi has been largely peaceful since 2000. But the latest spate of violence is also rekindling ethnic tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi communities. This was what led to the previous civil war.

Presidential elections have been announced for June 26 amidst this chaos. Both the EU and the African union have urged the government to postpone elections until peace is restored.

But as the latest killing of an opposition politician suggests, the situation continues to deteriorate.

For CRI I'm Poornima Weerasekara.