BUJUMBURA- The Burundi government has ordered the United Nations Human Rights Council to shut its office in the country within two months.
“The Burundi government is growing more radical and defiant towards the international community,” AFP News agency reported, highlighting Bujumbura’s boycott of an East African Community Summit in November that was meant to focus on Burundi’s ongoing political crisis.
Burundi accuses the United Nations Human Rights Council of meddling into the country’s political affairs and spreading ‘malicious’ information about President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government.
The gathering of regional heads of state in Arusha Tanzania was meant to focus on the ongoing political crisis in Burundi after several rounds of mediation failed after the government refused to meet with exiled opposition groups.
Burundi’s absence forced the postponement of the summit to December 27.
Burundi has been locked in a crisis since President Nkurunziza in April 2015 announced he would seek a controversial third term in office, sparking civil unrest that has left 1 200 dead and over 400 000 displaced.
President Nkurunziza has now called for a special regional summit on what he describes as an ‘open conflict’ to resolve the crisis.
Mr. Nkurunziza however, attributes the unrest in his country to his counterpart President Paul Kagame whom he accuses of offering militarily training to Burundi refugees to destabilize his ‘democratically elected’ institutions and sheltering the plotters of the failed 2015 coup.
In September this year, Burundi threatened to quit the rights council altogether after another report pointed to crimes against humanity in the country.
In 2017 Burundi left the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it launched an investigation into the alleged atrocities in the country.
A wave of violence started in the country in 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would run for a third term.
The political crisis led to hundreds of deaths, and more than 400,000 people fled the country, according to the UN.
