MenEngage Africa welcomes the African Union’s (AU’s) announcement of a high level delegation to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the Burundi crisis that has claimed over 400 lives and displaced more than 220 000 people since April 2015.
Five African leaders form part of this high-level delegation. They are Mauritania’s Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, Senegal’s Macky Sall, Gabon’s Ali Bongo Ondimba and Ethiopia’s Hailemariam Desalegn.
As MenEngage Africa, we call on the African Union to accelerate dispatching this delegation to Burundi.
We also call on the five leaders to take their role seriously. The lives and peace and security of Burundians lie on their shoulders and, therefore, we call on them to be impartial and fair in their efforts to negotiate a speedy and long-lasting resolution of the ongoing conflict.
Women, girls and children continue to be at risk of violence, sexual abuse and rape, which is largely used as a weapon of war in countries experiencing conflict. We call on leaders to act speedily to stop this systematic abuse.