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Former security officials accused of organizing a May coup attempt in Burundi were charged Monday, just days after the capital was hit with the worst violence since President Pierre Nkurunziza聽declared his candidacy for a disputed third term in April.

Former defense minister Cyrille Ndayirukiye was among the 28 people standing trial in the central town of Gitega. Though the coup was swiftly foiled,the government cracked down hard, forcing thousands to flee to neighboring countries and prompting some of the opposition to begin taking up arms.

On Dec. 11, an unknown number of gunmen stormed three military bases,聽killing 15 people, the Associated Press reported. The attackers were trying to seize weapons, the military says.聽Those attacks were followed by what some analysts say were retaliatory actions by the military in some of the city's neighborhoods, bringing the death toll to 87.聽

鈥淭his is by the far the most serious incident, with the highest number of victims, since the start of the crisis in April,鈥� Human Rights Watch researcher Carina Tertsakian said in a statement. 鈥淭he armed attacks on military facilities on 11 December were serious, and the Burundian government has a responsibility to restore law and order. However, going out and shooting people in residential neighborhoods appears entirely unjustified, and the members of the security forces responsible should be held to account.鈥�

The government, however, said that 鈥渢he people found in the streets are attackers who have been killed by the security," Karerwa Ndenzako, a government spokesman, told The New York Times. Witnesses claim that civilians were pulled out of their houses and killed, and their bodies left on the street for hours.

The charges against Mr.聽Ndayirukiye聽and the coup plotters come as the political crisis deepens over Nkurunziza鈥檚 third term 鈥� he was reelected in July 鈥� with the government and opposition failing to arrive at a compromise. Instead, tit-for-tat killings are on the rise, with Western powers and the United Nations worried that the violence could escalate into genocide and destabilize a region with strong memories of neighboring Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Foreign Policy reported on the growing number of rebel militias:

What is clear is that they are organizing themselves around the idea of removing Nkurunziza from power, The Wall Street Journal reports:聽

By Saturday morning, Bujumbura, Burundi's capital, quickly bounced back to action with the opening of stores. But the growing instability is prompting foreign evacuations, with the US government directing Americans to leave as soon as possible Sunday, a month after Belgium made a similar request to Belgian citizens living in its former colony.聽聽

US Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted Sunday that the killing must end, including "disproportionate response by security services."

More than 220,000 people have fled the violence to聽neighboring Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Congo over fears that Burundi could slide back into a ethnically-fueled civil war similar to the one it emerged from a decade ago.聽