East Africa Heads Call for a Special Summit over Burundi Unrest

The summit, which will be attended by all regional heads of state including President Uhuru Kenyatta, is set for Wednesday next week in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam.

As part of preparations for the summit, President  Kenyatta on Saturday met the COMESA Committee of Elders chaired by Bethuel Kiplagat, and held discussions with the EAC Eminent Persons at State House Nairobi.

President Kenyatta urged the parties embroiled in the current dispute in Burundi to engage in dialogue as this was the only way to end the political impasse in the country.

The Committee of Elders, which has been meeting different groups in Burundi since the beginning of the year, had come to brief the President on the unfolding political situation in the East African nation.

President Kenyatta who has been following the happenings in Burundi, was briefed on the political situation there.  Ambassador Kiplagat also presented proposals on possible solutions to the political crisis in that country.  

The unrests were sparked off by the ruling National Council for the Defence of Democracy – Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party’s decision to allow President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third five-year term.

Meanwhile, as the violence rages on in the troubled country, refugees who fled Burundi have started arriving in neighbouring Rwanda, with thousands more expected.

UNHCR says nearly 40,000 refugees have fled Burundi to neighbouring Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last month, amid protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.