EAC Leaders to Hold Another Summit on Burundi Crisis

East African leaders are set to hold yet another Heads of State Summit to discuss the Burundi crisis.
This comes as the country insists on holding the presidential elections scheduled for June 26 despite growing tension and unrest in the country.
The EAC Council of Ministers recommended a second summit as a continuation of the May 13 one that aborted after a former army general declared a coup against President Pierre Nkurunziza.
The Council’s chairman, Harrison Mwakyembe of Tanzania, and Secretary-General Richard Sezibera, are said to have met separately with President Nkurunziza and the opposition.
According to the East African News Paper, the other EAC ministers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda travelled to Kigoma and Rwanda to meet the Burundi refugees.
The report on refugees and what Dr Sezibera and the EAC Council of Ministers chair gathered in Burundi will be tabled to the presidents at the summit.
After nearly a month of protests and an attempted coup on May 13, the country’s electoral commission has delayed parliamentary and local polls scheduled for May 26 by a week, following requests by the opposition for more time to campaign.
The Presidential spokesperson Gervais Abayeho however, says there will be no further postponements because the country is ready to hold elections because the “rest of the country is peaceful” except for the capital Bujumbura, “which is still mired by pockets of violence.”