UN moves to prevent ‘possible genocide’ in Burundi

The United Nations moved Thursday to pull Burundi back from the brink of “possible genocide,” adopting a resolution that called for urgent talks and laid the groundwork for peacekeepers to be sent to stop the killings. The UN Security Council unanimously adopted the French-drafted measure that strongly condemned the wave of killings, torture, arrests and other rights violations in the central African nation. The resolution requested that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon present options to the council within 15 days on “the future presence of the United Nations in Burundi” to help end the crisis.

The Security Council must fully embrace its role of prevention… and not let the genie of ethnic violence out of the bottle.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre

Burundi descended into violence after President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a controversial bid to prolong his term in office in April. Witnesses say the killings, torture and human rights violations are the result of a government crackdown on opposition members. A wave of hate speech fueling attacks has drawn comparisons with Rwanda, where tensions between the same ethnic mix of Hutu and Tutsi exploded in 1994 and led to genocide. International alarm has been mounting after repeated appeals to Nkurunziza to enter into a dialogue with the opposition fell on deaf ears.

No effort can be spared to achieve an end to the violence and to foster a political solution.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, African Union chairman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson

Africa Burundi