{"id":21633,"date":"2015-12-04T08:03:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T08:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/burundi-facing-real-possibility-of-civil-war-us\/"},"modified":"2015-12-04T08:03:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T08:03:26","slug":"burundi-facing-real-possibility-of-civil-war-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/burundi-facing-real-possibility-of-civil-war-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Burundi facing real possibility of civil war: US envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Urgent regional mediation needed as the country appears on the brink of civil war, US diplomat warns.}<\/p>\n

Burundi is on the brink of civil war and will need regional mediation to establish a peace process between the government and opposition to prevent further bloodshed, a US envoy said.<\/p>\n

Thomas Perriello, the US special envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes region, said on Thursday that Burundi is “facing a real possibility of civil war,” though there is still “a window, no matter how small, to get a peace process going”.<\/p>\n

“The most urgent thing is a regionally mediated dialogue that will deal with the crisis itself,” he said.<\/p>\n

But regional efforts to cool Burundi’s crisis have stumbled, despite calls by the African Union and East African states for dialogue.<\/p>\n

Perriello said the international community has kept a close watch on Burundi and the extension of sanctions and the preparation of a peacekeeping force are among the options.
\n“We’ve learned way too painfully from the past that you don’t want to wait until after a genocide has started to be doing things to prevent it from happening,” Perriello said.<\/p>\n

The peace process, led by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and backed by the United States and others, has so far failed to bring the two sides to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

“We certainly feel that President Museveni holds the ball on this right now, and therefore some of the consequences if the talks don’t get started,” Perriello said.<\/p>\n

Critics have questioned the suitability of Museveni, who is currently running to extend his 30-year tenure as president for another five years.<\/p>\n

Last month, the US imposed sanctions on four current and former Burundi officials, citing reports of targeted killings, arbitrary arrests, and torture.<\/p>\n

Burundi, which emerged from a 12-year civil war a decade ago, began spiralling into chaos in April when President Pierre Nkurunziza’s announcement that he would seek a third term sparked months of protests in the capital Bujumbura and a failed coup.<\/p>\n

Civil society groups say more than 240 people have been killed since then.<\/p>\n

Nkurunziza won a disputed election in July.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

SOURCE:AL JAZEERA:[Burundi facing real possibility of civil war: US envoy->http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2015\/12\/burundi-facing-real-possibility-civil-war-envoy-151204074424917.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Urgent regional mediation needed as the country appears on the brink of civil war, US diplomat warns.} Burundi is on the brink of civil war and will need regional mediation to establish a peace process between the government and opposition to prevent further bloodshed, a US envoy said. Thomas Perriello, the US special envoy for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000070618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-21633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","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":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","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":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000070618,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21633.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21633.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21633.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21633.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21633.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21633.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21633","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=21633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000070618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21633"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=21633"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=21633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}