{"id":22085,"date":"2015-12-24T02:53:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-24T02:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/burundi-rebel-groups-form-armed-force-aimed-at\/"},"modified":"2015-12-24T02:53:27","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T02:53:27","slug":"burundi-rebel-groups-form-armed-force-aimed-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/burundi-rebel-groups-form-armed-force-aimed-at\/","title":{"rendered":"Burundi rebel groups form armed force aimed at ousting president Nkurunziza"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Burundi\u2019s rebels came together Wednesday for the first time as a force aimed at ousting President Pierre Nkurunziza, after months of bloodshed in the troubled central African country.}<\/p>\n

The formation of the insurgents comes amid mounting regional pressure on the government to accept African Union peacekeepers it calls an \u201cinvasion force\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 54-member AU said last week it would send a 5,000-strong force to halt violence that has sparked fears Burundi is sliding back towards civil war, and has pledged to send troops despite the government\u2019s fierce opposition.<\/p>\n

Pushing for Burundi\u2019s acceptance of the AU force will be a key part of talks in Uganda on December 28, regional diplomats said.<\/p>\n

The rebels have formed a force \u201cto protect the population\u201d and uphold the Arusha Agreement that paved the way to the end of the 1993-2006 civil war but which they say Nkurunziza has violated by his third term in power.<\/p>\n

The rebels have called themselves the Republican Forces of Burundi, or \u201cForebu\u201d from its name in French, Les Forces Republicaines du Burundi, said Edward Nshimirimana, a former army colonel turned rebel.<\/p>\n

RESTORE ARUSHA ACCORD<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to drive out Nkurunziza by force to restore the Arusha accord and democracy,\u201d Mr Nshimirimana told AFP by telephone.<\/p>\n

Nkurunziza, an ex-rebel and born-again Christian who believes he has divine backing to rule, won a third term in office in July.<\/p>\n

A coup attempt in May was crushed after two days, with many of the soldiers and police who took part fleeing.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people have been killed in months of street protests in Burundi, which have devolved into frequent armed attacks with gunfire disrupting the nights and dead bodies appearing on city streets almost every day.<\/p>\n

While there have been near daily gun battles in the capital, attacks are now taking place in other parts of the country too, but until now the rebel force had no name.<\/p>\n

The formation of Forebu is significant, as Bujumbura\u2019s government has dismissed talk of rebellion, instead rather blaming attacks on \u201carmed criminals\u201d or insurgents.<\/p>\n

CIVIL WAR<\/p>\n

Burundi plunged into civil war on ethnic lines between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis in 1993, at a cost of an estimated 300,000 lives by the end of the conflict in 2006.<\/p>\n

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will host the latest talks next week, Uganda\u2019s Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga told AFP.<\/p>\n

But those talks will also involve the key opposition coalition, Cnared.<\/p>\n

Burundi\u2019s government has so far refused to hold talks with Cnared, branding it a \u201cterrorist organisation\u201d and accusing it of being behind attacks on security forces.<\/p>\n

Rwandan President Paul Kagame warned that the violence in the neighbouring nation had the \u201cpotential to spill over\u201d to his country.<\/p>\n

But he said he would not send troops to join the African Union force being sent to Burundi.<\/p>\n

Kagame also dismissed allegations levelled by Burundian officials and aid groups that Rwanda is recruiting and arming refugees as rebel fighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t even seen the tiniest evidence of that so it becomes a lot of politicking,\u201d Kagame said, calling the accusations \u201cchildish\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Source:Daily Nation:[Burundi rebel groups form armed force aimed at ousting president Nkurunziza->http:\/\/www.nation.co.ke\/news\/africa\/Burundi-rebels-armed-force-to-oust-Nkurunziza\/-\/1066\/3008214\/-\/rm3qdl\/-\/index.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Burundi\u2019s rebels came together Wednesday for the first time as a force aimed at ousting President Pierre Nkurunziza, after months of bloodshed in the troubled central African country.} The formation of the insurgents comes amid mounting regional pressure on the government to accept African Union peacekeepers it calls an \u201cinvasion force\u201d. The 54-member AU said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","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":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","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":2000071067,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22085.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22085.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22085.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22085.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22085.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22085.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22085","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=22085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22085"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22085"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}