BUJUMBURA: A Burundi official said on Sunday that four members of the country’s ruling party were killed in an attack in continuing violence associated with the extended tenure of President Pierre Nkurunziza.

The attack was on supporters of the ruling party who had gathered for an exercise to clean up the environment, said Jerome Ntakarutimana, chief of Mugamba district in Buriri province.

The four men died after armed men dressed in hoods and military fatigues stormed a bar on Saturday night and opened fire, said a survivor of the attack, who insisted on anonymity for his safety. The attack increases the number killed in the past week to 10.

Nkurunziza’s controversial third term has set off rounds of political violence in which more than 400 people have died.

Burundi has experienced violent street protests, which boiled over into a failed coup in May and now a rebellion, since the ruling party announced Nkurunziza’s candidature for a third term in office in April last year. Nkurunziza won elections in July, which observers said was flawed.

Tit-for-tat attacks between Nkurunziza’s security forces and his opponents have been escalating since he announced a disputed bid for a third term in April 2015.

More than 400 people have been killed in the ensuing violence, according to estimates by the UN and rights groups.

Nkurunziza’s opponents said a third term violated Burundi’s constitution and a peace pact that ended the country’s 1993-2005 civil war.

A constitutional court ruling, however, said Nkurunziza could extend his rule.

Citing that ruling, the government organised an election which the president won in July.

Etienne Nijimbere, a local government official, told Reuters on Sunday the gunmen had attacked two villages in Mugamba district, 60 kilometres southeast of Bujumbura, and killed four people.

Another source told Reuters that “some of the attackers were wearing military uniforms with hoods on (their) heads.”

The international community is concerned that Burundi, which has a long history of coup attempts and civil war, could be sliding into a full blown conflict.

Earlier this month the US Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, Democracy and Labor Tom Malinowski described the situation in Burundi as extremely grave after visiting the country.

Agencies