UN: Almost 40,000 flee Burundi amid political crisis

Nearly 40,000 refugees have fled Burundi to neighbouring Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last month, amid protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

More than a week of demonstrations have plunged the African nation into its worst crisis since an ethnically charged civil war ended in 2005. Civil society groups say a dozen people have been killed. Police say the death toll is half that number.