The African Prevention and Protection Mission will be deployed to Burundi for at least six months and its mission can be extended, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council said. “We have a legal and democratically elected government that should be consulted before making such decisions”. Nzobonariba said his nation has enough troops to maintain peace, and sending forces without the government’s consent will be viewed as an attack on Burundi, the Associated Press reported. The African Union’s decision was unusual as it did not seek an invitation from Burundi’s government for the peacekeepers.
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The African Union’s institution called on the Burundian authorities to accept and cooperate with the mission and provide it within 96 hours with a response on the issue. If Burundi still refuses after this deadline, the AU would employ a special rule.
“This (AU) resolution marks the first time the African Union chose to invoke its charter’s Article 4”.
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.
Landlocked Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world, has seen fervent unrest since President Nkurunziza announced his candidacy for a third term in April.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield met Museveni on Wednesday in Entebbe, four days after she told a U.S. Senate panel that the Ugandan president’s campaign for re-election next year has distracted him from his role as mediator of the Burundi crisis.
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The surge in violence has raised fears of a return to civil war, a decade after the end of a 1993-2006 conflict between rebels from the Hutu majority and an army dominated by minority Tutsis, which left 300,000 people dead. Although a location has not yet been chosen, officials suspect that the meeting may take place in Uganda.
