Burundi protesters burnt a man to death in the capital on Thursday, accusing him of being a member of the ruling party’s Imbonerakure youth wing and saying the group had launched attacks on them, a witness and local media reported.

“They put tyres around his neck and then burned him,” a witness told Reuters after seeing the incident in the Nyakabiga district of Bujumbura, one of the flashpoint areas during protests against the president’s bid for a third term.

A presidential spokesman condemned the incident and said the government should take “strenuous measures” to prevent such incidents. The government has regularly dismissed charges that the Imbonerakure has been fomenting violence.