Tanzania to host emergency summit next week on Burundi crisis

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Thursday 07 May 2015 - 11:02 Makkah mean time-18-7-1436 President Pierre Nkurunziza (Google image) Bujumbura (IINA) – Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said Wednesday that his country will host an emergency summit of the East African Community (EAC) next week in an attempt to solve the crisis sparked by Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid to seek a third term in office,  according to media reports. The minister made the announcement during a visit to the Burundian capital Bujumbura by foreign ministers of three EAC countries, including Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. Membe said the ministers were on a fact-finding mission to prepare for the summit, which will be held in Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam on May 13, noting that Nkurunziza had agreed to attend. Burundi's Constitutional Court on Tuesday endorsed Nkurunziza's candidacy in the June 26 elections despite the constitution setting a two-term limit. The court vice president, who fled to Rwanda, said the judges had been pressured by the government. “Now that the Constitutional Court has issued a ruling, we came to get reassurance that violence is no longer tolerated, and assurance that the elections will be free, peaceful and fair,” Membe said. At least nine people have been killed so far in protests against Nkurunziza's candidacy, and more than 40,000 have fled to Rwanda, Congo and Tanzania. Membe said the summit would discuss repatriation of the refugees and “ways of reducing violence and creating confidence among the people.” Meanwhile, protest rallies continued to be staged across the country. In Bujumbura, protesters set up barricades while police fired shots into the air to disperse them. The EAC is an intergovernmental organization comprising five countries in the African Great Lakes region in eastern Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The President of Tanzania is the EAC's current chairman. The organization was originally founded in 1967, and officially revived in July 2000 after it had collapsed in 1977. AB/IINA