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African Union
The African Union said on December 18 it was preparing to send 5,000 peacekeepers to Burundi to protect civilians caught up in a growing crisis, for the first time using powers to deploy troops to a member country against its will.
The African Union said on December 18 it was preparing to send 5,000 peacekeepers to Burundi to protect civilians caught up in a growing crisis, for the first time using powers to deploy troops to a member country against its will. Burundi dismissed the announcement, saying no foreign force would get in without permission. But its neighbours have grown increasingly alarmed about the violence in the central African state which the United Nations says is on the brink of civil war.
Tensions have been running particularly high since gunmen attacked military sites in the capital Bujumbura last week, unnerving a region where memories of the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda are still raw. The AU has given Burundi time until December 22 to agree to accept a 5,000-strong peacekeeping force - or it will send the soldiers anyway. Burundian government leaders are warning they would not accept foreign soldiers. The controversy and crisis is over the re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza for a third term. An estimated 220,000 people have fled the country in the past eight months.
Its the first time the African Union is invoking its rule to send peacekeeping troops to protect civilians. The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 54 countries in Africa. The only African state that is not a member is Morocco, due to the status of the Western Sahara, although Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic have had their memberships suspended due to the recent coup d'état and ongoing civil war respectively.
The AU was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa, with the aim of replacing the Organisation of African Unity(OAU). The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The African Union is made up of both political and administrative bodies. The highest decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, made up of all the heads of state or government of member states of the AU. The Assembly is chaired by Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe.
