Germany tells EAC states to tackle Burundi crisis

Arusha. The East African Community (EAC) has been challenged to act accordingly in resolving the political crisis in Burundi and end the killings.

Germany Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said here on Sunday that there had been no sufficient regional response to the crisis which can spill-over into other countries.

“EAC and the African Union (AU) have to act quickly to defuse the situation”, he told reporters after a visit to the Community headquarters.

The minister, who was on the last leg of his four-nation tour of Africa, said the Burundi conflict was worrying and could impact not only on the development efforts but the donor support to the bloc.

He emphasized that the crisis has reached a stage where it needed quick intervention of the regional leaders in order to end the killings.

“The situation is surely going off hand,” he warned, noting that the mediation efforts already taken by EAC were yet to bear fruit.

Mr Steinmeier, however, declined to say why the development partners supporting the EAC have frozen their support to the strife-torn country now.

Several development partners, including member states in the European Union (EU) and others, were recently reported to have cut or suspended their aid commitments to Burundi due to the ongoing turmoil.

Burundi plunged into deep political crisis from April this year after the incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention to vie for presidency for the third, five year term. His political opponents claim that was against the country’s Constitution and the Arusha Accord which was signed here in the year 2000 to end many years of the civil war which had claimed the lives of over 300,000 people.

The situation worsened in July and August during the violence-wracked polls in which President Nkurunziza was elected and later sworn in to serve for another five year term, amid intensified violence between his opponents and the security forces.

The German minister could not explain what his country would do to end the crisis in the strife-torn Burundi and the support it plans to extend. Instead he proposed that the EAC should spearhead the mediation efforts.

“The mediation efforts that the EAC has taken should be sustained”, Mr. Steinmeier emphasized, noting that his country was equally worried by the situation in the strife-torn country.