Leaders of the five-member East African Community (EAC) will on Monday hold another emergency meeting on Burundi. Richard Owora Othieno, the EAC head of corporate communications and public affairs, told The New Times that the Emergency Summit will take place in the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam. Plans for the Summit, the third in a space of three months following the second one held in May, were revealed to The New Times a day after the United Nations declared this week’s parliamentary and local elections in Burundi not free and fair. This week’s polls were reportedly held amid a tense standoff as dozens of people were killed in the capital, Bujumbura. There was a tense political crisis and a climate of widespread fear and intimidation in parts of the country on polling day, the UN electoral observer mission said in a report. “Episodes of violence and explosions preceded and in some cases accompanied Election Day activities, mostly in Bujumbura,” said part of the nine-page report. “The environment was not conducive for free, credible and inclusive elections.” Burundi’s president, Pierre Nkurunziza, is seeking a bitterly contested third term in office. Meanwhile, the United States ratcheted up international pressure, calling for presidential elections on July 15 to be delayed. John Kirby, US Department Spokesperson, on Thursday issued a statement saying that Nkurunziza’s continued disregard for the Arusha Agreement has resulted in dozens of deaths, the exodus of over 144,000 Burundians to neighbouring countries and an economic meltdown. “The Burundian Government’s decision to push forward with the June 29 parliamentary elections despite the complete absence of the necessary conditions for credible elections and widespread calls, including from the African Union and United Nations, to delay the voting further exacerbated an already dire situation,” reads the US statement. The US says it joins with the AU, the UN, the EU, and other regional bodies and leaders in urging Nkurunziza to place the welfare of Burundi’s citizens above his own political ambitions and participate in dialogue with the opposition and civil society to identify a peaceful solution to this deepening crisis. “This solution should include the delay of the July 15 presidential elections until conditions are in place for free, fair, and peaceful elections.”
