According to Reuters News Agency, Nkrunziza’s resolution follows a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, earlier today.
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A dozen people were injured in at least 10 grenade blasts overnight in Bujumbura as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Burundi.BUJUMBURA: A dozen people were injured in at least 10 grenade blasts overnight in Bujumbura, police said Tuesday, as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Burundi.
Burundi’s crisis was triggered by Nkurunziza’s controversial decision in April a year ago to run for a third term which he went on to win in a July election. “This is what President Nkurunziza also confirmed”, Ban said.
The subsequent opposition to the move saw fighting in Bujumbura and scores of people killed as protesters and some armed resistance fought with state security in the streets of the capital.
President Jacob Zuma is heading to Bujumbura on Thursday and Friday with the leaders of Mauritania, Senegal, Gabon and Ethiopia for talks about the political situation.
Ban, who spoke after holding talks with Nkurunziza, said the discussions were honest and productive, especially with regards to the crisis the country is facing now.
Mr Ban said freeing prisoners was “an encouraging step”.
Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza has said he will release 2,000 prisoners detained since protests broke out against his rule in April. It includes all political parties opposed to the third term of President Nkurunziza except the National Liberation Forces (FNL) of Agathon Rwasa. Afterwards Ban will travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo on the second leg of an Africa tour that will also take him to South Sudan, where civil war erupted in December 2013. Burundi has a similar ethnic make-up to Rwanda.
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Nkurunziza has already rejected African Union plans to send in peacekeepers, saying he would see their arrival as an invasion. Ban’s visit – his first since the start of the crisis – was meant to revive stalled efforts to end the dispute and comes after the Burundi government appeared to soften its position towards opponents by agreeing to receive a delegation of African heads of state, expected later this week. Nkurunziza said he is ready to talk to his opponents and urged Ban “to persuade Rwanda to stop its aggression against Burundi”.
