In a statement on Twitter, the country’s president, Pierre Nkurunziza, called on residents to remain calm, saying that the situation was under control and that constitutional order was being maintained. Mr. Nkurunziza, who had been at a summit meeting in Tanzania during the coup attempt, was staying at a secret location in Dar es Salaam, senior Tanzanian officials said.

Reuters, citing a broadcast on state radio on Thursday, said Mr. Nkurunziza denounced the attempted coup but said that he was willing to forgive soldiers who surrendered. “I thank soldiers who are putting things in order, and I forgive any soldier who decides to surrender,” he said, Reuters reported, before the station stopped broadcasting.

Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE

Protests Wednesday in the Musaga district of Bujumbura, the Burundian capital, against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term.Political Turmoil Returns to Burundi as President Seeks New TermMAY 13, 2015
Burundi General Claims to Oust President Pierre NkurunzizaMAY 13, 2015
The government’s hold on the capital was in dispute, however, with the military appearing to be divided in its support for the beleaguered president and the general seeking to unseat him.

“We control virtually the entire city,” Venon Ndabaneze, a spokesman for the attempt’s leaders, told Agence France-Presse.

The news agency reported on Thursday that supporters of Mr. Nkurunziza had targeted independent broadcasters in Bujumbura.

Radio Bonesha, a broadcaster, posted a note on Facebook saying it had been stormed by a group of military officers and heavily armed police officers. Agence France-Presse, citing witnesses, reported that the station African Public Radio, which had been closed during protests and reopened after the attempted takeover, had been hit by a rocket.

On Wednesday, the former security chief Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare said in a broadcast from a radio station in the capital that Mr. Nkurunziza, who was in Tanzania for a meeting of East African leaders to discuss the crisis in Burundi, had been dismissed.

“The latest developments have increased the risk to civilians in a country already facing escalating violence,” Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International’s regional director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Those in power in Burundi have the ultimate duty to ensure that no more lives are lost as the situation unfolds.”

The East African Community, which is hosting the meeting of East African leaders in Tanzania, issued a statement on Wednesday condemning “the coup in Burundi” and calling for the postponement of a vote there because “conditions are not conducive for elections.”

For more than two weeks, hundreds had been demonstrating in the capital against the president’s bid for a third term. Violence surrounding the protests left at least 20 dead, and more than 50,000 people have fled to neighboring countries.

The roots of the conflict can be traced to a bloody and protracted civil war that began in 1993, when the first president to be elected from the country’s Hutu majority was killed by troops from the Tutsi minority.

After years of conflict, which claimed an estimated 300,000 lives, a power-sharing government took over in 2001. The country adopted a new constitution in 2005 that guaranteed the rights of Hutus and Tutsis to be represented in government and prescribed term limits.

The protests erupted last month when Mr. Nkurunziza, who took office in 2005, indicated that he planned to run in next month’s elections for another term. Critics said that amounted to a breach of the Constitution, which limits presidents to two five-year terms. His supporters contend that his first term should not be included in the calculation because he was not directly elected by voters in 2005.