African Union OKs deployment of 5000 peacekeepers to Burundi

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) undertook a fact finding mission in Burundi in accordance with the promotion and protection mandate of the commission.

Peace and Security Council has proposed sending 5,000 peacekeepers to Burundi, invoking a rule which allows it to deploy a force without the consent of Burundi’s leader, said a diplomat who was at an AU meeting on the issue.

The AU team said they had reports of “arbitrary killings and targeted assassinations” as well as arrests, detentions and torture.

Burundi, which United Nations officials say is on the brink of civil war, has said there was no need for a peacekeeping mission.

Burundi descended into bloodshed in April when President Pierre Nkurunziza introduced his intention to run for a controversial third time period, which he went on to win in July.

In the central African country of Burundi, people have been dragged from their homes and killed in the night, bodies have littered the streets of the capital at dawn, and an army barracks was attacked.

He insisted that “the situation needs urgent, concerted, decisive attention from the global community”, stressing that “the involvement of the worldwide Criminal Court in this regard would be of great importance”.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday 17/12/2015 expressed alarm at the escalating violence in Burundi.

In the country’s civil war, which lasted from 1993 until 2003, an estimated 300,000 people were killed – in a country of 10 million people.

At the session, more than 70 UNHRC member and observer countries voiced serious concerns over the growing violence in Burundi and demanded the government and opposition sides in the African nation immediately halt violence against civilians and swiftly hold substantive dialogues to seek political solutions to the domestic conflict.

“The population of Burundi has since May 2015 been living in fear”, he told the council, his voice a low raspy whisper due to the injury he sustained when he was shot in the neck. Following that attack, at least 87 people, reportedly including four police officers and four soldiers, were killed.

Burundi’s presidency said the same day it was open to “broad-based inclusive dialogue”, though opponents have dismissed similar pledges in the past. He suggested the use of drones as a “method of conducting such monitoring”.

“The consequences of the mobilization of more such individuals would be catastrophic – especially given that ethnic elements are already being stoked – given the country’s awful history in this regard”, he said.

Hundreds of thousands have also fled the worst violence to hit the country since it emerged from an ethnically charged civil war in 2005.

The top United Nations human rights assembly approved a resolution on Thursday calling for the quick deployment of experts to Burundi to look into abuses amid spiraling violence in the east African country.