Security forces at a protest in Bujumbura, Burundi | Renovat Ndabashinze/Anadolu Agency/Getty US fears mass violence in Burundi Burundi is in a “very serious situation,” a US official underlined the concerns about escalating violence in the African state.

US officials are increasingly anxious about the potential for mass violence in Burundi, a small African country whose troops have received significant American support and play a major role in the fight against Islamist militants.

Weeks of unrest spurred by the Burundian president’s decision to stand for a third term and a failed coup attempt have reached a tipping point, US officials, academics and other observers said Monday. While warning that the situation is fluid and could stabilize, some alluded — cautiously — to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which neighbors Burundi and has a similar ethnic make-up. Burundi itself has a history of mass killings.

Pro-government forces are facing off with protesters demanding the President Pierre Nkurunziza step down once his term is complete. On Monday, there were reports of scattered killings of protesters, US officials and others said.

“It is a very dangerous situation. We’re hearing from a lot of people in the country that they are extremely scared,” said Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor. “This is a country that has experienced mass atrocities and mass killings in the past, and all of the ingredients that experience has taught us to look for … are there.”

Burundi, like Rwanda, is roughly 85 percent Hutu and 15 percent Tutsi. The 1994 slaughter in Rwanda pitted the ethnic groups against one another and resulted in some 800,000 deaths. Aside from ethnic tensions, disputes over land rights could also add to the instability.

Malinowski declined to make a direct comparison to Rwanda, but said, “We have seen terrible things happen in this region before and promised ourselves if such a situation ever arose again we would do everything possible to prevent the worst from happening and we don’t know where this crisis is going to lead.”

Burundi’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cara Jones, an expert on Burundi with extensive contacts in the African nation of 10.4 million, said she’s been told that a youth militia that supports the president has been making lists of people who support and don’t support the ruling party and has begun demanding protection fees from some Burundians.

Pro-government activists are said to be using pictures and videos taken of protests to figure out who they can target, she added. Private media outlets have largely been shut down, and many citizen activists have fled the country, along with tens of thousands of other Burundians in recent weeks, making it difficult to access information, especially beyond the capital region of Bujumbura, Jones said.

Jones has been helping draft a letter signed by academics, policy experts and other interested parties to the Obama administration and members of Congress urging them to pay more attention to Burundi and to intervene — though not militarily. She noted that the ruling party, which is largely powered by the Hutu ethnic majority, has been making at times coded references that could stoke ethnic violence.

“It’s not only that people could be killed but also another humanitarian disaster,” she said. “It’s very possible this could spill over to other countries.”

The US has issued increasingly strong statements and travel warnings about Burundi in recent days. On Friday, it ordered the departure of non-essential embassy personnel and family members. Over the weekend, it chartered evacuation flights for US citizens. At least 20 Americans as well as some citizens from other countries left on three commercial chartered flights that left Sunday, the State Department said.

Protests erupted in Burundi on April 26, after the ruling party declared that Nkurunziza would be its nominee for presidential elections planned for late June. Opponents say Nkurunziza would be violating the country’s constitution if he stands for a third term, but he has argued that because he won his first term through a parliamentary vote rather than a popular vote he can serve again.

Last Wednesday, while the president traveled out of the country, a group of military officers tried to oust his government. They were foiled, however, by other army leaders, and several people now face trial. Jones said the government is trying to conflate the pro-democracy protesters with the coup leaders.

Burundi is a major contributor of troops to a broader African effort aimed at stamping out al-Shabab, an Islamist militant group, and the US has invested through multiple channels in Burundi’s armed forces. Since a 2000 accord known as the Arusha Agreement eventually ended an ethnically-charged civil war in Burundi in 2005, the army has emerged as one of the more stable powers in the country.

There are signs that the army’s unity may be fraying, Jones said.

On Sunday, Nkurunziza appeared to send a signal to the international community when he gave a speech that didn’t mention terrorism but said he was focused on the fight against al-Shabab. A spokesman for the militant group reportedly dismissed the president’s speech, saying he was trying to distract from his domestic problems.

The US has made it clear that it believes Nkurunziza is violating a past peace accord by trying to stay in power. In a recent warning to Burundi, the State Department stressed that “under US law, we cannot provide military training or assistance to military units that commit gross violations of human rights.”

It further stated its support for mediation efforts involving the United Nations, the African Union and others while adding that it “welcomes decisions by other donor partners to reduce or withdraw budget support and financial assistance to the government of Burundi in response to the continuing instability and violence.”

Asked if it was worth risking Burundi’s participation in the battle against Islamist militants by coming down too hard on Nkurunziza, Malinowski said that broader struggle is “an incentive to work a lot harder to prevent a scenario where the country falls apart.”