LUSAKA — The Organization of African Unity’s summit to plan an economy-focused alliance was dominated by conflict on Wednesday as Burundi announced an agreement for peacekeeping troops after a cease-fire in its brutal ethnic war.
Burundian President Pierre Buyoya said that South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana had agreed to send peacekeeping troops to the Central African country after a cease-fire in its five-year-old conflict.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in the fighting between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis in the tea- and coffee-growing nation since 1996.
Buyoya told a news conference that defense ministers of the four countries and that of Burundi met in Pretoria last week to prepare the deployment once a cease-fire had been agreed.
“All the disposition to implement this is ready once the cease-fire is there,” Buyoya said, speaking in English. The four states responded to a call for troops by former South African President Nelson Mandela, mediator in the Burundi conflict.
Source: GhanaWeb
