The Africa Union has appointed five heads of state and tasked them with trying to convince Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza on the importance of the deployment of peacekeepers to his troubled country.

Without giving names, AU Deputy Chairman Erastus Mwencha said that African leaders want to set up a high-level delegation of African leaders to travel to Burundi and meet with officials about sending the AU peacekeeping troops, adding however, that the continental body is not trying to force itself into Burundi. He also said the AU was convinced authorities in Burundi would push for peace.

“We still believe that the government has competence and capacity to change the situation on the ground, and we hope that the signals that they are getting from the international community about the concerns are impetus enough for Burundi to really make sure that peace and security returns, there is reconciliation, and the country returns to normalcy,” Mwencha said, while reacting to opposition claims that the AU has ‘abandoned’ the people of Burundi.

Despite repeated calls from the US, urging the AU to act within its powers and send 5,000 peacekeepers to Burundi, at last week’s AU Summit the leaders failed to nail it home, leading to criticism from various stakeholders including the opposition in the central African country.

Indeed, exiled leader of the opposition Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) accused the African Union and the international community of turning their backs on the people of Burundi while people were being killed by the government of President Pierre Nkurunziza.

But Mr Mwencha said the African leaders discussed Burundi in detail and decided to first give the dialogue process a chance before sending the peacekeepers.

“Burundi was indeed actually discussed. Burundi made a case and the Peace and Security Council made its case. Of course government officials of Burundi indicated that they are making progress in all-inclusive talks and that peace and security is improving, and the member states decided to give them the benefit of the doubt,” he said.

Mwencha said he urged Minani to carefully read the communique of the AU summit.

Meanwhile, four people were killed on Saturday night, including a child selling boiled eggs at a bar, when three grenades exploded in the capital Bujumbura, residents said.

At least five people, including security personnel, were killed in separate attacks on Friday. FRODEBU claimed on Saturday its fighters were involved in the Friday killings.

Nine months of violence sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term has left more than 400 people dead in a country that emerged from an ethnically charged civil war in 2005.

Unrest in the country began when President Nkurunziza said he wanted a third term in office which is contrary to the two term limit in the country’s constitution.

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Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has announced the resumption of river transport with the landlocked South Sudan ending a four-year halt decided by Khartoum over security concerns and accusations of support to rebel groups .

In a speech delivered in the capital of White Nile state, Rabak, al-Bashir announced the resumption of transport by river between Kosti and Juba.

The river transport was very active between North Sudan and South Sudan before and after the secession, and goods were transported by river barges to Juba or shipped by barge from Juba to Mongalla, Bor, Adok, Shambe, Malakal and Renk.

Bashir’s decision on Thursday follows an earlier one to open the border and review oil transportation fees. It also comes after statements by South Sudan President President Salva Kiir, vowing to improve ties with Khartoum and increasing bilateral cooperation.

The Sudanese president further said that his country will remain open for the South Sudanese citizens fleeing the armed conflict in their country and seeking refuge in Sudan.

He added that they should not be mistreated or held accountable for the actions of their leaders.

The White Nile state and Khartoum state are the two regions where the majority of the South Sudanese refugees in Sudan reside.

Nearly 200.000 South Sudanese moved to Sudan since the eruption of the armed conflict between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Riek Machar in December 2013.

Bashir also inaugurated a power plant in Um Dabakir area at a capacity of 500 megawatts. He disclosed that they agreed with the Indian government which constructed the new electricity station to increase its capacity to 750 megawatts in the near future.

He further vowed to transform the White Nile state to an oil producing region and to build a new airport in the White Nile state adding it would be achieved before the new Khartoum international airport.

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Refugees from Burundi, who fled violence in their country to neighbouring Tanzania, have accused their government of sending armed men into a UN-run refugee camp to hunt down opposition supporters.

Several refugees say that they fear for their lives and that there is no adequate security in the camps in Tanzania to protect them.

“The camp is currently not safe. We live in fear of Burundian government militia [members] who are in the camp,” one refugee said in a phone interview, from a camp in north west Tanzania.

The Burundian government has denied the allegations.

More than 200,000 people have fled Burundi since the African country slipped into a violent political crisis, and half of the refugees have sought shelter in Tanzania.

Al Jazeera visited the Nduta camp, where over 40,000 refugees are currently staying.

But the team was only allowed to interview refugees who had been screened by officials from the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR. The UN said the screening was for the protection of refugees.

However, other refugees in the camp who later spoke to Al Jazeera by phone said Burundi had dispatched agents who carried out attempted killings and abductions.

One man said that he narrowly escaped an abduction.

“Some of our group were tied up. We were loaded onto a truck and driven away. My friend and I jumped off and ran away to the Tanzanian border, where we met more government militia. They killed my friend but I escaped over the border,” he said.

Several other refugees also said dozens of Burundians had left the camp in November in the belief they would join an armed rebel group back in Burundi.

The refugees said they later learned it was a trap set by government-backed armed groups, and that most members of the group were killed, according to reports from people inside Burundi.

The refugees said they reported the incidents to camp officials, but most of the government agents are still at large.

Burundi’s denial

Contesting the refugees’ accounts, Alain Nyamitwe, the Burundian foreign minister, said the allegations were baseless.

“I don’t believe that there are militia operating in Tanzania as we have heard [from] UNHCR authorities,” he said, adding: “In any case, anything beyond the borders of Burundi is not the responsibility of the government of Burundi.”

The Tanzanian government, for its part, said it was not aware of the allegations, but that it would do whatever it could to secure the camps.

“The government has been very strict, and whenever we have spotted any kind of activity that is trying to suggest there is any kind of recruitment, we have actually taken serious measures,” Harrison Mseke, Tanzanian director of refugees, said.

“Only last week some refugees were actually apprehended and they were taken before the courts and charged on issues that were associated.”

Burundi has been plunged into violence since last year, after President Pierre Nkurunziza won a controversial third term, prompting street protests, a failed coup and sectarian killings.

A leaked UN report has accused the neighbouring Rwandan government of recruiting and training Burundian refugees in a camp in Rwanda to fight against the Burundian government.

Rwanda has denied the allegations.

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The United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reported today that it has identified seven new possible victims of sexual exploitation and abuse in the town of Bambari, just days after the UN revealed which countries’ troops have been accused of abusing minors.

In a press release, MINUSCA said the cases were brought to its attention on January 21 by a team of Human Rights Watch researchers, who passed the information to the Mission in the interest of ensuring medical and psycho-social care for the victims and accountability for any alleged crimes.

Upon receipt of these allegations, MINUSCA says it dispatched a fact-finding expert from the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) to Bambari, near the centre of the country. OIOS found sufficient initial evidence that five of the victims were minors and had been sexually abused and that one adult had been sexually exploited.

Also, OIOS said it was unable to interview the seventh alleged victim, reportedly a minor. Finally, one of the allegations passed to MINUSCA by Human Rights Watch was previously reported and is currently under investigation.

The soldiers implicated in these cases are from the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Governments of Republic of Congo and DRC have been notified of these allegations and have been asked to launch investigations. The CAR national authorities have also been informed.

“Due to the gravity of these allegations and given the information collected through the initial fact-finding, the United Nations has decided to take immediate measures, including the repatriation of the 120 Republic of Congo soldiers who were deployed to Bambari from 17 September to 14 December 2015,” the Mission announced, noting that this repatriation will occur after an investigation is carried out, and in the meantime the soldiers will be confined to barracks.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of MINUSCA, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, today travelled to Bambari with a high level delegation. He expressed his outrage and shame, reminding the troops that “sexual abuse and exploitation is a serious breach of the UN regulations and a human rights violation; a double crime that affects the vulnerable women and children you were sent here to protect.”

He also discussed the sexual exploitation and abuse incidents with affected communities and recommended additional emergency mitigation measures.

Addressing the DRC battalion in the final weeks before its repatriation, MINUSCA’s Force Commander Major General Balla Keita urged the soldiers to “honour themselves, their country, and the UN flag by serving with the highest standards of conduct and dignity.”

Speaking with the press at the end of the visit, the Mr. Onanga-Anyanga said that MINUSCA is “in combat mode” and explained that “he will not rest until these heinous acts are uncovered, perpetrators are punished, and incidents cease.”

Finally, he thanked all partners for the important role they are playing in reporting allegations and caring for victims, adding “we will never win this fight unless we work together.”

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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe declared a state of national disaster due to the worst drought in almost two decades that’s killed cattle, withered crops and left more than a million people needing food aid.

Mugabe’s announcement on state radio came as government ministers and United Nations officials warned of an accelerating disaster caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon that’s led to drought across southern Africa.

The number of people needing emergency food assistance has risen to 2.4 million from 1.5 million in a nation of 12 million people, Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said in a statement on Friday. Crops have been affected across 95 percent of the country and more than 16,000 cattle have died, he said.

“The situation is deteriorating at an alarming rate,” Eddie Rowe, an official with the United Nations World Food Programme, said on February 2, adding: “We’re approaching an unprecedented food insecurity situation, not just in Zimbabwe, but in the southern African region.” Rowe said food aid would be needed for at least nine to 12 months.

The government has earmarked $200 million for food imports, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa told lawmakers in Harare.

The drought has also affected regional corn producers South Africa, Malawi and Zambia.

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