Kagame denies claims that Rwandan troops have been deployed to its neighboring state.

Rwanda and Burundi fell out five years ago over an attempted coup on President Pierre Nkurunziza and have been at loggerheads ever since.

Local and foreign NGOs in the eastern DRC say Burundian and Rwandese troops are fighting alongside rival militia.

Thousands have been displaced in renewed violence this month.

President Paul Kagame insists there’s not a single Rwandan soldier in eastern DRC.

Burundi’s spokesman Jean-Claude Karerwa  says his country does not deploy troops in Africa except at the request of the African Union or the United Nations.

The post Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame accuses Burundi of deploying troops in Congo appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The ruling party says Evariste Ndayishimiye will be the candidate to succeed Nkurunziza who has been at the helm for 15 years.

ends intro

Pierre Nkurunziza, who put down bloody protests when he unconstitutionally contested for a third presidential term, made the surprise announcement that he would stand again in elections next May.

The ruling CNDD FDD has conferred on him the title Paramount Leader and Champion of Democracy.

It is not clear exactly what his powers and responsibilities will be….

….and how this will impact on the presidency of Evariste Ndayishimiye, a close ally and secretary general of the ruling party, who has been chosen to succeed him

The post Nkurunziza given special status for when he steps down appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

A SADC assessment team found Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to contest an unconstitutional extra term in power four years ago created unacceptable international security problem.

President Pierre Nkurunziza was not expecting this humiliating rejection when he sent a special envoy to SADC’s current head, Namibian President Hage Geingob, last month seeking Burundi’s admission.

Geingob has told his Tanzanian counterpart John Magufuli, who visited Namibia this week,  that the SADC assessment team that was  speedily despatched has given the application the thumbs down.

The rejection will grist be to mills of Nkurunziza’s domestic rivals who risk everything opposing an increasingly oppressive regime

The post SADC rejects Burundi’s application to join the regional grouping appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The request has gone to Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni who has to consider the regional security threat posed by calling such a meeting.

Burundi shunned an East Africa Community summit at the beginning of this month.

Now its calling for a meeting of regional leaders and stipulating its agenda.

President Pierre Nkurunziza blames his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame for his troubles since 2015 when he contested an unconstitutional third term in power.

He alleges Kagame is offering military training to Burundian refugees who left the country after an attempted coup that year.

Kagame, in turn, accuses Burundi of sheltering FDLR rebels responsible for the genocide in his country 24 years ago.

The post Burundi requests regional summit to discuss open conflict with Rwanda appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Burundian authorities have refused to comment on the report based on testimony of former government intelligence agents.

The government in Bujumbura has repeatedly denied any human rights violations.

It also discounted reports in 2016 on social media that blood was running from a  drain in house in the Burundi capital where critics of President Pierre Nkurunziza were tortured and killed.

BBC Africa Eye has spoken to a former occupant of the house who says it was take over by state intelligence operatives after he fled the country because he opposed the president’s seeking an unconstitutional third term in power.

The report also features accounts of people detained there who saw and heard people being killed and tortured.

The post A house of killing and torture uncovered in Burundi appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The African union has warned that the warrants against Mali-based Buyoya and 17 former Burundi officials could reignite ethnic conflict in that Great Lakes country.

With a regional summit looming on conflict in Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza is trying to deflect attention away from the problems caused by his power grab.

He’s arrested former military officials for alleged involvement in the 1993 assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye, four months after he became Burundi’s first democratically elected Hutu President.

Now he’s issued arrest warrants for former President Pierre Buyoya and 17 other officials.

The AU warns this could inflame ethnic tensions in a country where more than 300000 died in the civil war following Ndadaye’s murder.

Buyoya was instrumental in negotiating an end to that conflict.

The post AU warns against targeting former Burundi President Pierre Buyoya appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

State Prosecutor Sylvestre Nyandwi says they’ve gathered substantial evidence against the four who will be brought to court as the investigation continues.

The killing of President Melchior Ndadaye sparked a 10-year civil war that cost more than 300 000 lives.

A United Nations report into the assassination was withheld for fear it would spark further ethnic violence.

Finally released in 1996, the report blamed the Tutsi-dominated military for killing Burundi’s first Hutu president.

President Pierre Nkurunziza, who came to power at the end of the civil war has increased tension in the country by extending his term at the helm beyond his constitutional mandate.

The post Burundian authorities confident they have compelling evidence against four arrested for assassinating president appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

They say electors  were accompanied to the voting booths where officials or members of the ruling party’s youth wing pressed them to vote in favour of the constitutional change sought by the President already serving an unconstitutional third term.

Opposition leader Agathon Rwasa says the yes vote was achieved even in strongholds of his coalition because his monitors were either abducted, chased from the polling stations, jailed or threatened.

The youth wing known as Imbonerakure, which is regarded the United Nations as a militia group spreading terror among the population, played a leading role in this

Rwasa says the electoral process has been neither free nor transparent, nor independent and still less democratic.

The post Opposition rejects provisional outcome of Burundi’s referendum appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Results are expected tomorrow.

Voters were asked to say yes or no to a proposal that Pierre Nkurunziza be allowed to contest two seven- year terms after his mandate expires in 2020.

Half of Burundi’s 4,8 million people registered to vote.

Those calling for a boycott risked a three-year jail term.

Main opposition figure Agathon Rwasa says there were irregularities in yesterday’s voting that the government says was very orderly.

Nkurunziza came to power in 2005 and won an unconstitutional third term in 2015.

Nearly half a million people have fled ensuing violence that killed hundreds of protestors.

The post Burundi referendum result expected Saturday appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The United States is among countries saying they don’t expect the poll to produce a fair result.

President Pierre Nkurunziza’s hardly trying to convince his naysayers that the referendum will be above board.

He’s thrown out the BBC, Voice of America and other international media to prevent them from covering it.

Anyone calling for a  voter boycott is jailed and those who have not registered also face punishment.

Nkurunziza’s no stranger to applying heavy-handed measures to stay in power.

Hundreds of people have died protesting the unconstitutional  third term he took in 2015, and nearly half-a-million Burundians have fled the country to escape the violence.

The post Burundians go to the polls in a dubious referendum appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.