{"id":21304,"date":"2015-11-22T01:09:18","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T01:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/african-peace-bloc-pulls-out-of-troubled-burundi\/"},"modified":"2015-11-22T01:08:55","modified_gmt":"2015-11-22T01:08:55","slug":"african-peace-bloc-pulls-out-of-troubled-burundi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/african-peace-bloc-pulls-out-of-troubled-burundi\/","title":{"rendered":"African peace bloc pulls out of troubled Burundi"},"content":{"rendered":"

{An African regional bloc has pulled its headquarters out of crisis-hit Burundi after months of violence to ensure the “safety and security of its staff,” it said in a statement.}<\/p>\n

“The situation in Burundi is seriously worrying,” the 12-nation International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) said in a statement seen Friday.<\/p>\n

The bloc, based in Burundi since 2007, works to boost “peace, security, stability and development” in Africa’s Great Lakes region.<\/p>\n

“Every week, if not every day, bodies are discovered in Bujumbura… there are also shootings and explosions of grenades,” top ICGLR official Ntumba Louaba said in a statement, warning of a risk of a “cycle of violence.”<\/p>\n

Burundi descended into violence in April after President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a now successful bid for a third consecutive term in office, despite concerns over the legality of such a move.<\/p>\n

At least 240 people have since been killed and more than 200,000 have fled the country.<\/p>\n

“The situation in Burundi, particularly in Bujumbura has worsened and remains extremely volatile,” Louaba said.<\/p>\n

“Members of my staff and myself are not feeling safe,” he added, with the bloc headquarters now temporarily relocating to the Zambian capital Lusaka.<\/p>\n

Insurgents this week launched a failed mortar attack on Burundi’s presidential palace, in one of the first known such attempts in months of anti-government unrest.<\/p>\n

The two shells, reportedly fired from the surrounding hills, exploded a few hundred metres (yards) from the complex, echoing attacks carried out during the 1993-2006 civil war. There were no casualties.<\/p>\n

The government blames a string of attacks on “armed criminals”, but the UN has warned that Burundi risks sliding back into civil war after a dramatic rise in violence. Similar mortar blasts were reported in October.<\/p>\n

As well as Burundi, ICGLR members are Angola, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

THE NEW VISION<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{An African regional bloc has pulled its headquarters out of crisis-hit Burundi after months of violence to ensure the “safety and security of its staff,” it said in a statement.} “The situation in Burundi is seriously worrying,” the 12-nation International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) said in a statement seen Friday. The bloc, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000070295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-21304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000070295,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21304.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21304.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21304.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21304.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21304.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21304.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000070295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21304"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=21304"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=21304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}