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UN rights body orders investigation into Burundi violence

Thursday, 17 December 2015 5:41 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 17 December 2015 5:41 PM ]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein addresses delegates during a special session of the Human Rights Council on the situation in Burundi in Geneva, Switzerland, December 17, 2015. ©Reuters

The United Nations Human Rights Council has agreed to send experts to Burundi to investigate rights abuses there amid growing violence gripping the Central African country.

Following a day-long debate on Thursday, the 47-member Geneva-based assembly decided without a vote to call on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein to “urgently organize and dispatch on the most expeditious basis possible a mission by independent existing experts.”

Thursday’s resolution, tabled by the United States, also instructed the investigative team to provide the council with an oral update of its findings next March as well as a full report during next year’s September session.

It further voiced concern about “recent extrajudicial killings and attempted killings” in the landlocked African state and urged the authorities in Burundi to ensure that all perpetrators of the crimes will be brought to justice.

Last Friday saw the country’s worst violence in recent past, with the Burundian government saying 87 people were killed in the capital city of Bujumbura in a single day.

Residents gather to take a look at dead bodies lying in the street in the Nyakabiga neighborhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, December 12, 2015. ©AP

Zeid, however, said that the death toll was much higher, warning that Burundi was “on the very cusp of civil war.”

Burundi plunged into turmoil late April when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his decision to run for a third consecutive five-year term, a move which was denounced as contrary to the country’s constitution and a 2006 peace deal that ended 13 years of civil war.

The opposition boycotted the vote which came following widespread protests and a failed coup.

Nkurunziza was reelected after winning almost 69.41 percent of the 2.8 million votes cast in the July election.

Latest UN figures show that at least 400 people have been killed, while 220,000 others have fled Burundi since April 26 due to the political crisis plaguing the African state.

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