BURUNDI COUP - LEADERS OF UNSUCCESSFUL COUP ARRESTED AS PRESIDENT RETURNS.

President Pierre Nkurunziza

Burundian authorities said Friday they arrested the military generals behind an attempted coup shortly after the President returned to the nation.

Those arrested will be charged with mutiny in a military court, said Willy Nyamitwe, a government spokesman.

He did not specify the number of arrests, but said President Pierre Nkurunziza is scheduled to address the nation.

Army Gen. Godefroid Niyombare, who announced the coup on radio Wednesday, was among those arrested, the spokesman said.

The arrests come after the President, who was in Tanzania for a summit earlier this week, said he was back home. His exact location was not released, but he sent a tweet congratulating security forces on "their patriotism" and Burundians "for their patience."

Coup called a 'joke'

Shortly after the general announced the attempted coup, the government downplayed it.

Reports of a coup are "a joke," the government spokesman said. The President's office said some soldiers had declared an "imaginary" coup and appealed for calm, saying security forces are looking for the culprits. Nkurunziza urged citizens not to panic.

"We ask all the people of Burundi to stay calm in the face of the impostor," the President tweeted Thursday. "The situation is under control and the constitutional order has been safeguarded."

He did not say where he was tweeting from or whether he had left Tanzania after the summit.

The international airport in the capital of Bujumbura was shut down; so were the nation's land borders. Fear and uncertainty reigned, as gunfire and explosions rang out in Bujumbura for hours Wednesday and Thursday.

"People are staying indoors, not moving," said Gad Ngajimana, who lives in Bujumbura. "The faces of the people -- they are very scared. Either it is a coup or not, no one knows."

Niyombare, a former head of Burundian intelligence, was fired by the President in February.

Protests against the President

Animosity against the President started last month when he expressed his intention to extend his 10-year rule.

Nkurunziza is seeking a third term, which is prohibited by the agreement that ended the 1993-2003 civil war. Protesters determined to prevent his candidacy have demonstrated in the capital, and police have met them with deadly force. Nkurunziza officially registered last week to run for a third term, further angering protesters.

The attempted coup punctuated weeks of protests.

Burundi's constitutional court ruled he is eligible to run again because he was picked by parliament, not elected by the people, during his first term.

At least seven candidates have registered for the presidential race scheduled for next month. Among them is prominent opposition leader Agathon Rwasa, who helped lead rebel fighters in the country's civil war.

East African Community leaders called for the elections to be postponed, saying conditions are "not conducive" to holding them.

Refugees stream into neighboring nations

As protesters clashed with security forces over Nkurunziza's decision to run for office, about 105,000 refugees have fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Rwanda, according to the United Nations.

Political infighting sparked fears that Burundi would plunge into ethnic violence, with the central African nation's history of civil war making it especially vulnerable to deep divisions.

While the current crisis is rooted in politics, some observers fear the government might try to stoke ethnic animosities in a last-ditch effort to retain power.

Burundi, like its neighbor Rwanda, has a Hutu majority and a Tutsi minority

The last time the nation plunged into ethnic violence fueled by tensions between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis, the resulting civil war left 300,000 people dead.

The tiny landlocked nation is home to about 10 million people.

CNN