Burundi rejects African Union peacekeeping force

On the basis of the preparatory work undertaken within the framework of the contingency planning carried out by the Commission in pursuance of the relevant provisions of previous decisions, the Council has chose to authorize the deployment of an African Prevention and Protection Mission in Burundi (MAPROBU), for an initial period of six months renewable.

Burundi has dismissed the AU’s decision to deploy troops.

“We are a troop-contributing country to several African Union peacekeeping missions in Africa and now they want to bring peacekeepers to our country?” said Abayeho. The government of the small country is asserting that there is no current threat of genocide, reported the BBC.

Deadly violence has pushed Burundi close to civil war.

On December 13 the fact finding mission for Burundi conducted by the Peace and Security Council of the AU, a Delegation of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission) returned after a week-long investigation (December 7-13).

Just last week around 40 bodies were found strewn across the capital Bujumbura in what is widely regarded to be government retaliation after assaults on three military sites by anti-Nkurunziza forces.

The bloc urged talks among its members, including those in its regional East African Standby Force (EASF), “to generate the troops and police elements needed to quickly reach the authorised strength”.

The AU Peace and Security Council made the announcement on Friday while stressing that genocide will not be allowed to happen again.

“We will not allow foreign troops in Burundi”.

Smail Chergui, the AU Peace and Security Commissioner, tweeted that “the killings in Burundi must stop immediately”. In conformity with worldwide law, it requests “the UN Security Council to adopt, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, a resolution in support of the present communiqué”.

The United Nations said at least 400 people have been killed since April, when unrest erupted after President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would seek a third term in office.

The Burundian government, opposition and officials of neighbouring countries will discuss a national unity administration and the return of refugees, among other issues, said Kiyonga.

At least 220,000 people have fled the country. They said they had reports of “arbitrary kilings and targeted assassinations” as well as arrests, detentions and torture.

The violence has unnerved a region that remains volatile two decades after a genocide in neighboring Rwanda.

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.