AFRICA/BURUNDI - Appeal to the EU: "The crisis in Burundi threatens to spread to the entire Great Lakes region"

Bujumbura (Agenzia Fides) - President Nkurunziza’s pursuit of a third term in office has precipitated a humanitarian, economic, and security crisis, forcing more than 200,000 Burundians to become refugees in neighboring countries.
This was announced in a statement sent to Fides, by EURAC (European Network for Central Africa). Extrajudicial executions were carried out following the assault on 11 December against three military camps on the outskirts of the capital of Burundi (see Fides 14/12/2015).
"Despite the seriousness of what happened on 11 and 12 December, the Burundian authorities state that the security situation is generally good throughout the territory of Burundi", said the statement, which instead denounces "the strategy of power that tends to ethnicize a conflict whose causes are primarily political".
EURAC is also concerned that the Burundian crisis may spread at a regional level "especially for the large number of Burundian refugees in neighboring countries, which according to some estimates are about 220,000". "In this regard – stresses the statement - the recruitment by non-state armed groups in Rwanda of Burundian refugees of Mahama camp, could have disastrous consequences for the stability of the entire Great Lakes region".
EURAC appeals to the European Union so that it supports sending a UN peacekeeping mission in Burundi, with a mandate to protect civilians; to ask the International Criminal Court to open an investigation regarding urgent crimes committed in Burundi; to support the efforts of the East African Community and the African Union to restore dialogue among the parties in Burundi; to maintain the suspension of financial aid to the government of Burundi until the authorities in Bujumbura do not return to sincere political and inclusive dialogue; to ask the UN to suspend the participation of Burundian militants in the peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and in the Central African Republic (MISCA). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 18/12/2015)

Share:

area crisis

---

---

extrajudicial killings

---

---