The decision of Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third term in office is dragging the country into chaos barely a decade after a historic peace accord ended years of civil war. Last weekend, the president’s party, the CNDD-FDD, unanimously nominated him to stand for re-election in the June elections, triggering widespread protests that his candidacy violates the country’s constitution – which mandates a maximum of two term limits.

President Nkurunziza has refused local and international pressure to back down from contesting, arguing that in his first term, he was elected by MPs, not through a general election. On this ground, his government has refused the demands of the protesters. Presidential spokesman, Gervais Abayeho, called the protests an “insurrection” and said the opposition was trying to take Burundi back to 1993, when the country disintegrated into civil war.

The war pitted the ethnic Tutsi minority, which dominated the army at the time, against rebel groups mostly made up of the Hutu majority. One of the group’s leaders was Nkurunziza.

Rising tension is creating fears of even graver violence. One that has been likened to the scale of the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, where nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. The ruling party has been accused of arming its youth wing and using them to instigate violence, though it has repeatedly denied these allegations.

Rwanda said more than 20,000 people have sought refuge inside its borders, and thousands have also fled to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Burundi said that three people had been killed and 15 police officers were hurt during Sunday clashes between security officers and protesters in Bujumbura. The government has also clamped down on the media, shutting down three radio stations on the charge of fuelling the violence.