{Burundi\u2019s foreign minister summoned envoys for the EU and several European nations on Thursday to rap them over the knuckles for skipping a diplomatic meeting he had invited them to, government sources said.}<\/p>\n
Ambassadors for the EU, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands had been ordered to attend a meeting on Tuesday to be briefed on the \u201cpositive development of the situation in Burundi and the resumption of co-operation\u201d, a high-ranking Burundian official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Burundi, in the grip of a 20-month crisis since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he was seeking a third term in office, has been slapped with sanctions by the EU, its biggest aid donor, for failing to halt violence in the central African nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficially these ambassadors missed this important meeting because they had a busy agenda, but that doesn\u2019t fool anyone because it was clearly a boycott and also an attempt to sabotage this very important activity,\u201d said the government source.
\n\u201cIt is unacceptable and that is why the foreign minister summoned them, to give them a clear message that they must respect the laws of this country,\u201d he said, criticising a \u201clack of respect of a sovereign country\u201d.<\/p>\n
A diplomat who attended the meeting with the Foreign Minister Alain-Aim\u00e9 Nyamitwe said it lasted several hours and allowed \u201cthe calm exchange of our points of view to diffuse an already tense atmosphere as much as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n
By imposing the sanctions \u2013 travel bans and asset freezes against four top figures \u2013 the EU hopes to pressure the government into holding talks with the opposition.
\nBujumbura has refused to do so and considers the opposition a \u201cterrorist organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nkurunziza\u2019s third term run \u2013 which he went on to win \u2013 sparked a failed coup attempt and months of protests that led to a government crackdown, armed attacks and assassinations.<\/p>\n
The UN estimates that more than 500 people have been killed and some 300,000 have fled since the crisis began.<\/p>\n
Bujumbura argues it is the target of a \u201cforeign plot\u201d to destabilise the country, pointing the finger at the EU, France and former colonial power Belgium whose ruling party has accused the government of plotting genocide.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago Burundi recalled its ambassador to Belgium.<\/p>\n
Burundi has also moved to quit the International Criminal Court which was investigating the country, and cut ties with the UN\u2019s main human rights body after a damning September report detailed atrocities, and warned of \u201cgenocide\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Burundi\u2019s foreign minister summoned envoys for the EU and several European nations on Thursday to rap them over the knuckles for skipping a diplomatic meeting he had invited them to, government sources said.} Ambassadors for the EU, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands had been ordered to attend a meeting on Tuesday to be briefed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","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":71}],"contributors":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","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":71}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31167","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=31167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31167"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31167"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}