A former Tanzanian president mediating talks to end Burundi\u2019s deadly crisis will meet the opposition this weekend in a bid to end the deadlock, diplomatic and opposition sources said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Mkapa is to hold talks in Brussels with members of CNARED, which groups almost all opposition parties, they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome the fact that the mediator will meet CNARED members in Brussels on Friday and Saturday,\u201d the group\u2019s spokesman Pancrace Cimpaye told AFP from Brussels.<\/p>\n
Western and African diplomats confirmed that Mkapa would meet with opposition figures this week.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people have been killed and a quarter of a million others have fled Burundi since President Pierre Nkurunziza\u2019s controversial decision in April 2015 to run for a third term, a vote he won amid opposition boycotts in July.<\/p>\n
Peace negotiations were held in Arusha in Tanzania in April, but CNARED was pointedly not invited.<\/p>\n
The Burundian government refuses to sit down with key opponents whom it accuses of involvement in a failed May 2015 coup and months of deadly political violence in the central African country.<\/p>\n
Some members of CNARED were invited to the Arusha talks individually but the organisation as a whole was kept off the list.<\/p>\n
Spokesman Cimpaye said the group would ask that a Burundian official from the six-nation East African Community regional bloc be axed from the group of mediators as he is close to the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will then present (Mkapa) our roadmap,\u201d Cimpaye said.<\/p>\n
Mpaka has said he expects to convene another dialogue session in the third week of June.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the next two weeks, I will continue and complete the consultations with those who did not come\u2026 but who I feel might have positive contributions to make to the process,\u201d Mpaka said.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former Tanzanian president mediating talks to end Burundi\u2019s deadly crisis will meet the opposition this weekend in a bid to end the deadlock, diplomatic and opposition sources said Tuesday. Benjamin Mkapa is to hold talks in Brussels with members of CNARED, which groups almost all opposition parties, they said. \u201cWe welcome the fact that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":220567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n