Strategic Thinking on East Africa

  BY ELOGE WILLY KANEZA AND IGNATIUS SSUUNA Associated Press At least four people were killed in overnight violence in the Burundi capital, the police said Sunday as sporadic gunfire and loud explosions continued to echo across the city. A local human rights activist, however, said up to seven dead bodies had been discovered and […]

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Rights organizations are concerned the small African nation, which saw a decade-long war end in 2005, is on the brink of another major conflict. Women leaving Burundi in April. (Photo: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters) Samantha Cowan is an associate editor and helms TakePart’s weekend coverage. Families are leaving their homes in the Central African nation of Burundi […]

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By AFP Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused Burundi’s leaders of carrying out “massacres” on their people in his most critical speech yet of the crisis in the troubled neighbouring state. “People die every day, corpses litter the streets… How can the leaders allow their population to be massacred from morning to night?” Kagame said, […]

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by Andrea Purdeková The government’s use of repression over dialogue has put the country and region’s stability at risk. In one of the latest bouts of violence in Burundi last week, at least three people died in Bujumbura as police battled with gunmen who reportedly threw grenades and fired machineguns. This encounter was one of the more recent […]

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By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The president of Burundi’s five-day ultimatum for people to hand over illegal firearms or be treated as enemies of the state may spark extensive bloodshed in the coming days, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday. “The United States is alarmed by the […]

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Is Rwanda choosing impunity over international justice? Louise Mushikiwabo is this week’s guest on Conflict Zone, DW’s top political talk show. Louise Mushikiwabo on Conflict Zone The Foreign Minister of Rwanda accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) of having a racial bias and of being little more than a tool for Western countries “to manipulate […]

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By AFP Rwanda has dismissed accusations it was meddling in neighbouring Burundi’s political crisis, with Kigali’s foreign minister saying Rwanda only wanted peace. “Burundi’s problem is not Rwanda’s, Burundi’s problem is Burundi’s,” Louise Mushikiwabo told reporters in Kigali late Thursday. “We believe, as leadership, that when leaders take decisions they should be able to live […]

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Burning barricades in Bujumbura, as turmoil erupted in Burundi. Photo: Desire Nimubona/IRIN 13 October 2015 – The United Nations in Burundi is calling for aid funding for the humanitarian crisis facing the country, which is facing its deepest political crisis since the end of the civil war after President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a […]

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By Kabona Esiara Burundi has expelled a Rwandan diplomat, as tensions between the two East African countries intensify.Though the reason for the expulsion is not clear, the two countries have been locked up in a diplomatic row which has been on for several months. The expelled diplomat Desire Nyaruhirira, a first minister councillor at the […]

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By: Reuters Nairobi - At least eight people died in shootings in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura overnight, an administrator said, and explosions rang out in several districts, the latest in a series of attacks to hit the city since a disputed presidential election. Local residents told Reuters the police were behind the killings and had been accompanied […]

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