The African Union on Wednesday officially created a peacekeeping force of more than 1 500 South African troops for Burundi to help integrate the country’s last active rebel movement.
The pan-African body has taken over from the United Nations in order to facilitate the integration of the Forces of National Liberation (FNL) into a broader peace process.
”This unit will have about 1 500 South African soldiers and a mandate of six months,” Mamadou Bah, AU representative in Burundi, told journalists.
”We have to do everything so that the integration of the FNL ends within this delay.”
Bah signed an accord with Burundi Foreign Minister Antoinette Batumubwira for the creation of the AU force in line with a September 7 ceasefire, which has yet to be fully implemented, even if fighting has stopped.
In December, South Africa’s 768 UN peacekeeping troops in Burundi were transferred under the authority of the African Union.
South Africa last week agreed to deploy a further 1 100 troops as part of the AU special task force in Burundi.
The civil conflict in the small nation pitted the army, dominated until recently by the Tutsi minority, against various Hutu rebel movements. — Sapa-AFP