Editor,

It is gratifying to see the Burundi army moving to contain the situation. Their decision to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza was the best option of resolving an intractable problem created by a President hell bent on trashing his country’s constitution in order to hold on to power against equally determined popular resistance against the presidential coup.

The army’s takeover has the added advantage of preserving the country’s sovereignty which would have been violated had outside forces - say the East African Standby Force - been sent in to impose order, quell the tragic bloodletting and facilitate a solution of the political stand-off caused by Nkurunziza’s attempted coup against the constitutional order.

If ever there was a time when a military coup was fully justified, it is this.

Mwene Kalinda