ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—A team sent to investigate the ongoing crisis in Burundi received reports of torture, arbitrary killings, targeted assassinations, arbitrary arrests and detentions which are of “great concern,” the African Union said Tuesday.
Friday’s attack of three military facilities by an unidentified group that left at least 87 people dead, has led to an escalation of violence and human rights violations, a delegation of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights said in a statement.
Burundi has been in turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza sought re-election in April despite a two- term limit imposed by the constitution. The April announcement of Nkurunziza’s candidacy sparked street protests that boiled over into an attempted coup in May. Nkurunziza was re-elected in July, but the violence has since increased.
The AU urged in its statement that all state and non-state actors should put an immediate end to the ongoing violence and the human rights violations, saying that the current crisis cannot be solved through fighting.
