Nearly 10,000 Burundians fled the country over the weekend before Burundi closed its borders ahead of controversial and violence-wracked elections in the troubled central African nation, the United Nations said Tuesday.
Since Burundi's political turmoil began in April, some 144,000 people have fled the country, with the numbers surging towards the end of last week, the UN refugee agency said.
"The pace this weekend spiked... We saw over the weekend 10,000 more Burundians fleeing the country," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in Geneva.
More than 6,000 had arrived in neighbouring Tanzania alone over the two-day period, bringing the total there to around 66,600.
Another 56,500 are in Rwanda, 11,500 in Democratic Republic of Congo and more than 9,000 in Uganda, UNHCR said.
Burundian officials closed the borders late Sunday ahead of Monday's controversial parliamentary polls something they claim is common practice during elections and plan to reopen them late Tuesday.
"Over the last 48 hours, refugees and people trying to flee have been resorting to trying to cross informal border crossings through the forest to leave the country," Fleming said.
People arriving in neighbouring countries have told aid workers that roads are being blocked and that people suspected of heading to the border are being forced off buses, she said.
"Many said they had to walk for hours through the bush without luggage so as not to attract the attention of the militia and the police," she said.
"We are concerned that people who want to flee to seek asylum, who fear their lives are in danger are not able to leave the country," she added.
The troubled central African nation has been in crisis since late April over President Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial bid to stand for a third consecutive five-year term, a move branded by opponents as unconstitutional and a violation of a peace deal that ended 13 years of civil war in 2006.
The opposition boycotted Monday's parliamentary elections, which precede the planned presidential vote on July 15.
While the flood of refugees leaving Burundi initially consisted largely of women and children, Fleming said a growing number of men were now leaving.
They had told aid workers they fled because of the breakdown in diplomatic negotiations and over fear the ongoing violence will escalate leading up to the July 15 presidential vote.
"They're very concerned that the country is going to break down," Fleming said, adding that international appeals for funds to assist the refugees was "not meeting with much donor generosity."
A month ago, UNHCR and its partners appealed for $207 million to help protect and help up to 200,000 Burundian refugees, but have so far received just 13 percent of that amount.
PIERRE NKURUNZIZA
Pierre Nkurunziza, who has caused controversy with his decision to run for a presidential third term, has governed Burundi for nearly 10 years.
Critics of the 51-year-old, who came to power after a civil war which left 300,000 dead, say he should not run again for office as that would be unconstitutional.
His supporters feel he is justified as he was elected by parliament in 2005 - not voters - a view upheld by Burundi's Constitutional Court.
And the former rebel leader takes pride in the fact that his administration has brought peace to Burundi - and says now is the time to reap the fruits of this.
It is this image that he is keen to portray as a man of the people working to rebuild the country, one of the poorest in the world.
It has been reported that diplomats arriving for official meetings with Mr Nkurunziza have been whisked away from the capital, Bujumbura, into the countryside, where they find the president digging in the fields with local farmers.
In fact his enthusiasm for planting avocado trees is so well known that many Burundians have renamed the popular green fruit "amaPeter" after him.
The man's simplicity is remarkable, and he always draws attention, mingling with village people in the remote rural areas where he spends most of his time, his official biography on the Burundian government website says.
This has made him more popular in rural areas, but not in the capital, where most of the opposition resides.
Born-again Christian
Before the civil war, Mr Nkurunziza, who had graduated in sports education, was a teacher and assistant lecturer at the University of Burundi.
He also coached the army football team, Muzinga, as well as Union Sporting, a Burundian first division team in the 1990s.
He now has his own side, Hallelujah FC, where "he plays as a striker and scores regularly", his biography says.
The name of the team also indicates one of his other great passions: His Christian faith.
His father, a former governor who was killed in the 1972 massacre of ethnic Hutus, was Catholic and his mother Anglican.
Now a born-again Christian, the father of five never travels without his own football team and a choir, where he combines matches against local team with evangelical prayer sessions..
He and his wife Denise were once reported to have washed the feet of some of those among the crowd.
It is not only the people who the president believes have put their faith in him.
Mr Nkurunziza indeed believes he is president by divine will, and he therefore organises his life and government around these values.
His critics, who include about 40 opposition parties as well as human rights groups, paint a somewhat different picture of him.
They accuse him of being a dictator who refuses to give up power.
This perception grew after Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term in elections rescheduled for 15 July, rejecting pressure from protesters and foreign governments to step down.
Hundreds of people have been killed in protests since he announced his re-election bid in April, and more than 100,000 have fled to neighbouring states, raising fears that Burundi could descend into conflict again.
Mr Nkurunziza survived a coup attempt in May when former army loyalist Godefroid Niyombare led the attempt to overthrow him.
Mr Nkurunziza's forces crushed the coup bid, and the opposition says repression has intensified, making it impossible to hold free and fair elections.
UN human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein has raised particular concern about Imbonerakure, a youth group allied with Mr Nkurunziza.
It is suspected of carrying out summary executions, tortures and beatings, and "could tip an already extremely tense situation over the edge," he has said.
The Hutu CNDD-FDD rebel group that Mr Nkurunziza led during the civil war - sparked by the killing of Hutu President Melchoir Ndadaye in 1993 - was responsible for several atrocities.
These included several ambushes along major roads, killing many travellers, including Tutsis.
He took up arms in a bid to end the long-standing dominance of the country by the minority Tutsi community.
Mr Nkurunziza was sentenced to death in absentia by a Burundian court in 1998 for laying land mines, but received an amnesty under the peace accord that ended the fighting.
Last year, he tried and failed to change the constitution, which limits the powers of his CNDD-FDD party by guaranteeing positions for the minority Tutsi group in all government institutions.
His critics say this stands at odds with his public stance that he wants to overcome the ethnic tensions that led to the civil war.
Under the the above circumstances, not a single tourist would wish to visit Burundi.
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