{UAH} AFRICANS LET US ALL STAND UP AND BLAME THE WHITES THEY DO ALL THIS TO US.

Thousands flee Burundi, fearing for their lives as election nears

Those arriving in Rwanda say they have been intimidated by thugs who support President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Edmund Kagire / The associated press

Burundian refugee children stand in the mud near to tents holding hundreds of other refugees who have fled from Burundi, at a refugee camp in Rwanda on Tuesday. More than 10,000 people have fled Burundi amid threats of violence ahead of elections, with many arriving saying they have been intimidated by thugs who support President Pierre Nkurunziza.

By: Edmund Kagire The Associated Press, Published on Fri Apr 24 2015

GASHORA, RWANDA—More than 10,000 people from the East African nation of Burundi have crossed into neighbouring Rwanda amid threats of violence ahead of elections, with many saying they have been intimidated by thugs who support President Pierre Nkurunziza, who may seek a third term.

An average of 360 people are arriving every day. Many refugees say they fear attacks from a group known as Imbonerakure, a youth group loyal to Nkurunziza’s ruling party, known by its initials as the CNDD-FDD.

“They have been armed and are ready to harm or at worst kill anyone who doesn’t support CNDD-FDD,” Jean de Dieu Niyibizi, 27, one of the refugees who crossed to Rwanda.

Appearing frail after many hours of walking, Niyibizi said that he and others trekked for two days before they got an entry point to enter Rwanda. He said they reported the threats to local authorities but no action was taken. The refugees say the government has put armed forces along border points to prevent people from fleeing.

“We had to bribe out way out because if you don’t have money they send you back,” said Niyibizi, who left behind his wife and two children. “I wanted to come and see the situation before I ask them to come.”

Last week, Burundi’s president said that citizens were fleeing from no particular threat but from hunger.

The CNDD-FDD is set to convene a congress on Saturday to decide whether it will field Nkurunziza or get a new candidate for the June 26 presidential elections. The international community has warned that attempts to violate the constitution could catapult Burundi back into violence and ethnic strife.

Burundi’s constitution says the president “is elected by universal direct suffrage for a mandate of five years renewable one time,” but Nkurunziza’s supporters say he is eligible to serve a third term because he was first installed as president in 2005 by parliament to lead a transitional government, and not by a popular vote. He won the 2010 election as the sole candidate. Opposition members boycotted, saying they feared the election would be rigged.

The flow of refugees testifies to the fear and violence that gripped the country for years until the 2003 Arusha Peace Accord could be rekindled. Burundi’s civil war, fought mainly between Hutu rebels and a Tutsi-dominated army, resulted in the deaths of more than 250,000 people. The Rwandan government and the UN refugee agency on Wednesday started relocating the refugees from the current camps near the border to another camp in Mahama, east of Kigali, Rwanda’s capital.

Resistance to Nkurunziza, an ethnic Hutu, comes from some members of his own party, lawmakers, the clergy, student groups and civil society.

Hussein Radjabu, the former head of CNDD-FDD who fell out with Nkurunziza, on Tuesday warned that the ruling party could be planning ethnic killings and that people have already been trained and armed to carry out attacks.

Presidential spokesman Willy Nyamitwe said on Thursday that Radjabu’s claims are not true.

 

 

EM

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