Regional and world powers have grown increasingly concerned that the security situation in Burundi could lead to civil war or mass atrocities, and that a weekend deadline for Burundians to give up weapons could spark widespread bloodshed.
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Killings, torture and detentions are increasing in Burundi, and the United Nations warned on Tuesday that the worldwide organization is less well-equipped to deal with the situation than it was in Rwanda before the 1994 genocide. An even more serious hostility comes from those who have been identified opponents of the re-election of President Nkurunziza for the third term in July, noting the exchanges of gunshots and grenade explosions, UN News Centre reports.
“We are extremely anxious by what we are seeing in Burundi at this moment: this increase of political violence and the extremely alarming ethnically-based hate speech”, Lamek said. “The current political crisis and violence does not stem from an “ethnic” confrontation”, Christoph Vogel, a researcher focusing on Africa’s Great Lakes region at the University of Zurich, said in a Twitter message.
For months, bodies have been turning up in opposition neighborhoods, the result of extrajudicial killings that witnesses say are often carried out by uniformed police and military personnel.
Relations between Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi are tense, with Bujumbura accusing Kigali of backing those who oppose the president’s third term in office.
Bujumbura mayor Freddy Mbonimpa said seven people were killed in an “execution” attack on the bar Saturday night and that a probe had been launched to find the “assassins”.
“The language is unambiguous to Burundians and chillingly similar to that used in Rwanda in the 1990s before the genocide”, the global Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank said.
In addition, the UN Secretary-General is expected in the coming days to announce the appointment of a Special Adviser who will lead and coordinate United Nations efforts in support of Burundi.
Four people were also found dead Saturday in the city’s Ngagara and Mutakura districts, local official Remy Barampama said in an interview.
“I was terrified, I understood that this time they would kill every last one of us”, she said.
The political crisis has seen many independent media outlets shut down, and many journalists have fled the country or have gone into hiding because of threats and attacks.
Nkurunziza, a former Hutu rebel leader, became Burundi’s first democratically elected president after its civil war. The council also said the union would impose sanctions against people who incited violence.
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In The Hague, the global Criminal Court has warned it was ready to prosecute the instigators of any large-scale violence.
