Analysts react to Tanzania’s position on Burundi crisis

While some quarters welcomed the possibility of eliminating public secondary school fees as promised by President Jakaya Kikwete in his statement on Tuesday, analysts and parents in Dar es Salaam have questioned it.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday backed an African Union decision to investigate human rights abuses in Burundi, and said it too was ready to take action over the continuing violence.

NAIROBI: Small destitute Burundi, a central African nation marked by a troubled ethnic history and a deadly civil war, has been mired for eight months in a deepening political crisis that the African Union fears could trigger a genocide.
 
HOW DID BURUNDI'S CRISIS BEGIN? 

The crisis began on April 25 when President Pierre Nkurunziza, who had been in office since 2005, said he planned to run for a third term. The plan was dubbed anti-constitutional by civil society, the opposition, the Catholic...

An ominous cloud has hung over Burundi ever since Mr Pierre Nkurunziza was sworn in as president for a controversial third term in August. The re-election campaign was bloody and the man even survived a coup attempt.

Belgium advises its citizens to leave Burundi, while the EU says it is cutting staff levels in the African country because of the "rising risk of violence".

Uganda’s defence minister is in Burundi in the latest bid to kickstart peace talks between rival factions in the impoverished central African country, presidential officials said Thursday.

>A high level meeting of the  East African Community (EAC) which ended here at the weekend skipped the Burundi crisis despite rising concerns on the security situation in its member state.

>President Jakaya Kikwete has sent a fact-finding mission to Burundi, which is caught up in a crisis over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term in office.

The head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT), Bishop Alex Malasusa, has called for continuous regional and international talks on the violence in Burundi noting that it is the only way to save the country from a full-blown civil war.