Nkurunziza: vows to fight AU peacekeepers

Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza has come out openly to threaten African Union peacekeepers billed to be sent to his country.

It was his most confrontational comments yet on a mounting political crisis in the small African country.

The African Union said this month it was ready to send 5,000 peacekeepers to protect civilians caught up in months of violence, invoking for the first time powers to intervene in a member state against its will. Burundi’s officials have raised objections to this proposal, but it was the first time Nkurunziza would voice out his position.

“Everyone has to respect Burundi borders,” Nkurunziza said in comments broadcast on state radio.

“In case they violate those principles, they will have attacked the country and every Burundian will stand up and fight against them … The country will have been attacked and it will respond,” he said.

More than 220,000 have fled since the crisis erupted in April, triggered by President Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term.

Opposition groups took to the streets saying he was violating constitutional term limits. But he pointed to a court order allowing his campaign and was re-elected in a disputed July vote.

A failed coup, continued clashes and gun attacks in the central African nation have unsettled a region where memories of the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda are still raw.