Burundi continues to reject AU's peacekeeping plan

Burundi is still not bending to efforts by the African Union to restore peace in that country.

Talks at the AU Peace and Security Council on Friday dragged well into the night in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa concerning the deployment of 5000 AU troops to the east African country

The 54- member bloc sought to resuscitate the matter which was rejected last year by the country’s President Pierre Nkurunziza.

But Burundi still insists that the move would be a violation of the country’s borders. The country’s Foreign Minister Alain Aime Nyamitwe said he had the backing of other nations in opposing such a force.

“We have said that the deployment of this force is not justified, and we gave the reasons for this rejection, that we believe that the situation in the country is under control,” Nyamitwe said.

A two-thirds majority vote is needed in order to send the force.

In December last year, President Nkurunziza whose third term bid is the main bone of contention by many of his country’s citizens said their arrival would violate the rights of a sovereign country and threatened to fight them.

“In case they violate those principles, they will have attacked the country and every Burundian will stand up and fight against them … The country will have been attacked and it will respond,” he said in his first public response to the AU plan.

A number of African leaders at the time rubber stamped Nkurunziza’s stance.

On Friday, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh said Burundi is not the only country resisting the idea. “Most interveners in the country are not welcome,” he said.

The UN has warned that Burundi risks a repeat of the 1993-2005 civil war, with some 400 dead since April and at least 230, 000 people fleeing to neighbouring countries.