President Pierre Nkurunziza has given them up to November 7 to surrender their arms.

Burundi’s President, Pierre Nkurunziza is ready to give civic training to those gunmen who will surrender their arms and has also promised that they will be freed with no punishment.

The November 2 to 7, 2015 deadline was a “last call” , as Mr Nkurunziza has warned  those “who commit crimes to abandon this path”, news agencies quoted him as having said in a  speech broadcast on State radio. He reportedly said that gunmen who will lay down their arms would be welcomed by the forces of law and order and they will learn how to love their country during the two-week civil training after which the converted gunmen would return to their families. During the radio address, Nkurunziza also announced the imminent organization of a national dialogue to discuss the way forward for Burundi.

President Nkurunziza’s ultimatum that will end with an amnesty to gunmen who would yield to his demands, comes after a string of battles between gangs of gunmen government call “criminals” and security forces with eight of the “criminal” fighters killed and 18 others captured in the latest attacks.   Police spokesman, Pierre Nkurikiye said on Monday that the latest clashes took place in the rural Nyabiraba district, some 13 kilometres east of the Burundian capital, Bujumbura. Nyabiraba is a stronghold of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), one of the main ethnic Hutu rebel groups during Burundi's 13-year civil war, which ended in 2006. The FNL oppose Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD ruling party, another Hutu ex-rebel group.

While government calls the gunmen criminals, the United Nations has warmed of the risk of a return to civil war. Reports say the UN has further warned that Burundi risks sliding back into civil war after a dramatic rise in killings, arrests and detentions, with over 200,000 refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries.