TALKS to thrash out a negotiated settlement of Burundi’s devastating civil war resumed in Tanzania on Monday, attended by six heads of state and under the stewardship of former South African president Nelson Mandela. The highlight of the morning’s proceedings was an address by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, invited by Mandela to offer the experiences of his own country in making a transition from military to civilian rule. Civil war has ravaged Burundi since 1993, pitting a variety of mainly ethnic Hutu rebel groups — only some of which are represented in Arusha — against an army and government dominated by the Tutsi minority. Some 200000 people have been killed, around half of them civilians, who have been targetted by both sides in the war.