General Leonard Ngendakumana, a former chief of staff in the National Intelligence Service and the deputy leader of a group of generals of who led the aborted coup, gave an exclusive interview on the Burundi crisis to The EastAfrican's Trevor Analo to be published in full on Saturday, July 11.

One of the aborted Burundi coup leaders, General Leonard Ngendakumana has said President Pierre Nkuruzinza will be forcefully removed from office following the failure of diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the Burundian crisis.

General Ngendakumana, told The EastAfrican, that the coup leaders only retreated to strategise after the failed coup on May 13 this year but did not stop fighting. This is the first time that a senior figure in the organised resistance has opened up to the media.

“After having seeing that the political solution of protesting in the streets has failed to produce results, and that efforts of the international community have failed to convince the president to step down, the only option left is fighting the regime until President Nkurunziza leaves office,” General Ngendakumana said in an exclusive interview to be published in full on Saturday, July 11.

The general, who was once the chief of staff in the National Intelligence Service, is the deputy leader of the group of generals who fled with a significant number of soldiers into exile in a neighbouring country after their coup attempt was foiled.

“This organised resistance is led by our leader, General Godefroid Niyombare. We have been together running this war against Nkuruzinza from the bush and the streets of Bujumbura,” he said.

“We are behind the armed resistance you are currently seeing in the streets of Bujumbura,” the general said.

Unidentified armed men battled the police in the capital on the eve of the parliamentary polls last week on Monday. He said civilians should stop “protesting with empty hands and protest with guns just as the president is doing”.

READ: Burundi govt, opposition clash over local, parliamentary polls

In the interview, General Ngendakumana talks about the genesis of the Burundi crisis, why a group of dissatisfied generals decided to depose their own commander-in-chief and why the coup failed.

“Why should our mothers, our sisters, and our brothers fight in the streets and be killed by the police and we are not there? We chose to join the army to die for others not the other way around. A civilian cannot die for the soldier. That is just logic,” General Ngendakumana said.

The general, who was once the president’s adviser, also opens up on why he fell out with Mr Nkuruzinza and why powerful forces within Burundi’s security establishment want the president to be in office for another five years.

The parliamentary polls were marred with violence, with security forces being accused of attacking anti-Nkuruzinza neighbourhoods and committing grave human rights violations.

The streets of Bujumbura were filled with sounds of sustained gunfire and grenade explosions even during the country’s Independence Day on Wednesday.