The UN security council is to vote on a resolution condemning the killings, torture and human rights abuses plaguing Burundi amid fears that the language used by the government to describe its opponents is reminiscent of the rhetoric that paved the way for the Rwandan genocide.
Thursday’s draft resolution – which also includes the threat of possible sanctions against those responsible for the violence – comes as the UN and the African Union (AU) discuss whether to bring in peacekeepers who are currently deployed in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Burundi facing mass atrocities unless UN acts swiftly, experts warn It asks the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to present options to the council within 15 days on actions that could be taken to end the violence.
At least 240 people have been killed in the central African country since protests began in April against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s ultimately successful quest for a third term. Some 200,000 are estimated to have fled to neighbouring states.
Burundi ended a 12-year civil war in 2005, when Hutu rebels fought the army led by Tutsis, the same ethnic divide that led to Rwanda’s 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were massacred.