A top Burundian general and close aide to President Pierre Nkurunziza was killed Sunday in a rocket attack on his car in the capital Bujumbura, officials and witnesses said.

The general killed, Adolphe Nshimirimana, was a former army chief of staff and worked at the presidency. He was widely seen as the crisis-hit central African nation's de facto internal security chief and even considered the regime's number two.