The Burundian government announced it will not attend the peace talks scheduled for Wednesday between itself and the opposition.
The Burundian government announced it will not attend the peace talks scheduled for Wednesday between itself and the opposition.
The talks were set to take place in Tanzania and were intended to stop the political violence which has claimed hundreds of lives and caused thousands of Burundians to flee the country.
“[There will be] no dialogue tomorrow or on January 16th as many may think because there has been no consensus on that date,” the permanent secretary of Burundi’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Joseph Bangurambona informed Reuters News Agency on Tuesday.
The violence began when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would seek an unconstitutional third term in April. Mr. Nkurunziza then won the general elections in July, although both the opposition and international observers condemned the elections.
Two explosions rocked the Burundian capital of Bujumbura on Monday leaving, at least, two people injured. Opponents of President Nkurunziza have accused him of responding to any form of opposition with violence.
Speaking to the Guardian UK newspaper Rachel Nicholson, a researcher with Amnesty International, stated that there was a culture of impunity and fear in the neighborhoods where protests against Mr. Nkurunziza have erupted.
“Arbitrary arrests, disappearances, cordon-and-search operations accompanied by the killing of civilians have become routine at a time when many independent human rights organisations have been forced out of the country and people do not know who to turn to for redress,” the researcher said.