France suspends security cooperation with Burundi
France has decided to suspend its security cooperation with Burundi, a French diplomat says, amid a crackdown on anti-government protesters in the Central African country.
The diplomat, whose name was not mentioned in reports, said on Tuesday that Paris is halting its aid to Burundi’s police and defense establishment due to the ongoing crackdown on those who oppose President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial bid to stand for a third consecutive term in power.
France helps train the Burundian police, who have been recently engaged in a violent suppression of anti-government street protests. It also helps train the Burundian army for international peacekeeping missions.
France’s decision came a day after a protester was shot dead and two others wounded during an anti-government demonstration in the town of Muyange in southern Bururi Province.
Burundi has been the scene of violent clashes ever since Nkurunziza announced his plans to run for a third term in late April.
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Earlier this month, Major General Godefroid Niyombare, a former intelligence chief, led a coup attempt against Nkurunziza’s administration. The coup attempt failed, but sections of the army loyal to Nkurunziza launched a crackdown on dissent.
The protesters say the president’s attempt to run for a third term is in violation of the constitution, which only allows two five-year terms for a president.
Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the majority Hutu tribe, nevertheless, has rejected the claims and argued that he can still run for the presidency as his rise to power after Burundi’s 12-year civil war back in 2005 did not come through direct voting.
Burundi, a small nation in Africa’s Great Lakes region, emerged in 2005 from a ruthless 12-year civil war. In October 1993, Melchior Ndadaye, the first democratically-elected president of Burundi, who came from the Hutu ethnic group, was assassinated after only 100 days in office. The assassination triggered deadly ethnic violence between Hutus and Tutsis, who form another ethnic group in Burundi.
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