The United Nations has designated strife-riven Burundi a non-UN family duty station.
The move comes three months after a number of UN staff and their families were evacuated from the restive central African state following the declaration by President Pierre Nkurunziza in April that he would seek another term in office after serving for 10 years.
Nkurunziza, who was sworn-in on August 20, had earlier on been declared winner of the presidential poll of July 21 by the Burundian Electoral Commission, for a controversial third term. But the UN Electoral Observation Mission in Burundi (MENUB) and other stakeholders said the obtaining environment in the country was not conducive for credible elections.
Since his‘re-election’ following the controversial polls, Burundi has been thrown in a circle of violence that has seen the assassination of two senior military officials: General Adolphe Nshimirimana, a close advisor to President Nkurunziza and retired Colonel Jean Bikomagu, a former head of the army on August 2 and August 15, respectively.
Meanwhile, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) report for July-August, on August 17 the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon urged the people of Burundi to settle their differences amicably and pledged UN support towards the peace and stability efforts, while earlier on August 16 the African Union had warned of “the potential of further escalation, with catastrophic consequences both for the country itself and for the region as a whole.”
Similarly, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had on August 14 August stated that the Burundi crisis was “spiraling out of control”, an observation shared by UNOCHA.
In a related development the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is expecting the number of refugees to rise to 320.000 by the end of September, prompting 22 humanitarian agencies to seek for an additional funding of US$100 million in ‘support of life saving assistance’.
