Regional civil society organisations have petitioned the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) to urgently undertake a number of actions within its mandate to contain the ongoing violence in Burundi.

Among others, they want the House to call for the suspension of Burundi from both the EAC and the African Union (AU) should the situation there remain volatile after one month.

The Assembly is set to hold its next sitting in Kigali starting next week.

Civil society representatives have also petitioned EALA to make strong recommendations to the EAC Heads of State Summit, including demanding that Burundi does not assume the rotating chairmanship of the bloc, next year, until it resolves the political and humanitarian crisis in the country.

An EALA statement indicates that representatives of the Pan African Lawyers Union and the East African Civil Society Organisations’ Forum on Monday presented a petition to EALA speaker Daniel Kidega at his chambers in Arusha, Tanzania.

The activists urged the House to call upon the chair of the Assembly of Heads of State and governments of the AU to take concrete steps towards preventing Burundi from descending into genocide or mass atrocities.

Numerous reports of cases of assassinations, extra-judicial and arbitrary killings in Burundi show that at least 130 people have been killed over the last couple of months.

The country descended into turmoil following President Pierre Nkurunziza’s re-election bid. Violence has since forced over 220,000 Burundians, mostly children, to flee to neighbouring countries.

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