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Whilst we may recall the Rwanda genocide in 1993, few know its neighbour Burundi had a longer ethnic civil war from 1993-2000, until the Arusha peace agreement and today it is sliding into yet more violence. A lengthy overview via Open Democracy:https://www.opendemocracy.net/andrew...is-and-warning
Somehow I doubt there is the will, let alone capability in the UN or Africa for another peacekeeping mission and certainly not till "normal office hours" in early January 2016.
Link:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...n-peacekeepersQuote:
Burundi’s president, Pierre Nkurunziza, has threatened to fight any African Union (AU) peacekeepers imposed on his country in his most confrontational comments yet amid a mounting political crisis.
The AU said this month it was ready to send 5,000 peacekeepers to protect civilians caught up in months of violence, invoking for the first time powers to intervene in a member state against its will.
Some background, mainly on the UN is on:http://www.theguardian.com/global-de...n-peacekeepers
There is an old thread, now closed. Mass Atrocity Response Operations, that may provide some guidance on what may come next:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=10318
I have been there last year. Someone told me that he feared trouble, even violence if Pierre Nkurunziza would run for a third time. Never did I, naively maybe as I'm, have expected such terrible news so quickly:
Quote:
Every day has seen bodies of young men found on Bujumbura’s street, notably in key opposition areas such as Nyakabiga, Musaga, Cibitoke, Jabe and Mutakura. Witnesses report young men have been taken from their homes and executed, sometimes by unidentified’ attackers, others by police, security forces or militia. An Amnesty International briefing noted how as police went from house to house arresting, looting and killing victims. These included a disabled man, a teenage egg seller, domestic worker, and mobile-phone seller. A number of those killed were children including a 15-year old boy shot in the head as he ran to escape the regime killers.
On 11 December, a reported ninety people were killed (local observers put the number at nearer 200), after the military said it repulsed attacks on three army bases in Bujumbura. In the capital, it is noticeable that those specifically targeted in what the government euphemistically calls "operations against the enemy" are young Tutsis soldiers, as well as alleged Hutu opponents of the government. The targeted murder of young Tutsi recruits at ISCAM (Burundi's "West Point"), where they were arrested and taken away to be eliminated, suggests a planned and systematic attempt to purge the army of all Tutsi elements. Tutsi recruits and junior officers are now reported to be in hiding or remaining at home rather than go into their barracks for fear of what may happen to them.
Burundi may have slipped from the foreground, although the BBC News has a number of reports - violence is a regular feature, not the feared civil war. A June 2016 BBC country profile:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13085064
Today's The Guardian has a long report on the continuing violence, which has some odd twists:https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-knew-too-much
A rare update on Burundi, by anonymous locals and sub-titled: 'The government is calling on its 380,000 refugees to return home, claiming the country is safe. Why does no-one believe them?'
It appears that some of the violence is directed as former military:Link:http://africanarguments.org/2017/02/...far-from-over/Quote:
Since then, there has been an intensification of executions, torture and detention, mainly against ex-FAB. During reprisal operations following the assault, at least one former soldier was killed by the security forces and 15-25 arrested.