He was admitted to hospital on Saturday after feeling unwell, his condition improved but on Monday he had a cardiac arrest and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, officials say.

After 15 years in power, Mr Nkurunziza was due to step down in August.

In 2015, the announcement that he would run for a third term plunged the country into chaos. It sparked anger as some questioned the legality of a third-term bid.

There was a failed coup attempt, hundreds of people died in clashes and tens of thousands fled the country.

After a change in the constitution, he was able to run for a further term in last month’s election but he decided to retire and was to be known as the “supreme guide to patriotism”.

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The AU announced two weeks ago that it would send 5,000 troops to protect civilians in the country, even without the government’s consent.

“Everyone has to respect Burundi borders,” Nkurunziza said in his first public response to the AU plan which is the regional bloc’s response to the raging crisis in which at least 400 people have been killed and 220,000 displaced since April.

The violence began after Nkurunziza announced he would seek a third term in office.

He survived a coup attempt in May, and secured a landslide victory in disputed elections in July.

There have been fears that the violence could spiral into civil war and possible ethnic conflict.

Under Burundi’s constitution, foreign troops can only intervene if the warring parties ask for it, or if there is no legitimate government in place, the president said in comments broadcast on state radio.

Any violation of those principles would be considered “an attack on the country and every Burundian will stand up and fight against them,” he said.

Other government officials have already criticised the AU proposal saying it would violate the country’s sovereignty.

If the deployment goes ahead, it would be the first time the AU uses its power to deploy a force without a country’s consent.

A clause in the organisation’s charter allows it to intervene in a member state because of grave circumstances, which include war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Diplomatic moves to prevent a civil war in Burundi have recently accelerated with the UN, the European Union and the East African Community fearful of the impact of worsening violence both on the local population and the region.

The government has said there is no threat of genocide.

A peace meeting held in neighbouring Uganda on Tuesday to find a solution to the crisis ended without any agreement.

A recent AU fact-finding mission reports of arbitrary killings, torture and the arbitrary… “closure of some civil society organisations and the media”.

Ethnic conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in the 1990s claimed an estimated 300,000 lives.

Nkurunziza is the former leader of a Hutu rebel group, who has been in power since a 2005 peace deal.

Both the government and the opposition are ethnically mixed.

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