Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza must respect the Arusha agreement and help bring to an end the ongoing political standoff in Rwanda’s neighbour to the South, Erica J. Barks-Ruggles, the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda, said Friday.

She was visiting Mahama refugee camp in Kirehe District which hosts thousands of Burundian refugees who have crossed into Rwanda in recent weeks.

Ambassador Barks-Ruggles, who was in the company of Saber Azam, the UN refugee agency representative to Rwanda, said the region as well as the international community should continue putting pressure on Burundi’s government to heed to the 2000 Arusha accord.

The deal which helped end the country’s civil war in 2005 is widely credited for Burundi’s decade long peace and political stability.