EVENT SUMMARY
In the past few weeks violence in Burundi has erupted and analysts warns if not contained it could lead to yet another worst civil war.
The African Union investigators have expressed the fear of Burundi plunging into a worse war than its infamous 1993-2005 civil war.
African Union has intervened and agreed in principal to send peacekeeping army contingent to quell the violence before it escalates.
Burundi’s crisis started in April 2015, worsened when President Pierre Nkuruziza was re-elected on a controversial third term. His third bid into the highest office was termed unconstitutional.
The protests, unrest were witnessed and a military coup almost turned Burundi into a war zone.
The army chiefs leading the coup surrendered and normalcy was witnessed though not last.
In the recent few months, chaos and killings have been witnessed in the country’s capital Bunjumbura.
With this turn of events, African Union has agreed to deploy troops to stop the violence in Burundi; a senior official was quoted saying Friday 18th December 2015.
Yesterday (Thursday) the AU’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) “took a decision yesterday to send troops to protect civilians,” senior AU official Bonaventure Cakpo Guebegde briefed the media journalists.
From the outcomes of Thursday’s meeting, AU Security Council led by Chief Smail Chergui indicated that there was “a very clear message” from the meeting that “the killings in Burundi must stop immediately.”
The AU official also revealed the troops to be deployed in Burundi will be under the banner of the East African Standby Force (EASF) but no potential size of the any force has been agreed he added.
