The African Union (AU) has at last taken concrete steps, way from its usual rhetoric that it shares with the larger world body; the United Nations. Endless resolutions that are not accompanied by concrete measures only encourage dangerous situations to escalate. Expressing regrets after bodies pile up should by now not be part of the world’s vocabulary. Burundi has been slowly burning for the last ten months; hundreds of bodies have littered its streets. Political assassinations and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Burundian refugees into neighbouring countries have not made things any easier. All along, the world has been content in issuing harmless statements condemning the state-sponsored violence while the body counts rises. As one peacekeeping expert pointed out recently, even if the UN decided to intervene directly in Burundi, it would take at least nine month before the first boots hit the ground. Only God knows what would have transpired by then. The African Union should take this opportunity to show the world that it is not just a toothless organization that only goes on the field when the big boys have landed, it should take the lead in bringing Burundi to order. Even though initial vibes from Bujumbura point to a government that is against any foreign intervention, that should not deter it. The East African Standby Force is ready to deploy at short notice, therefore the AU has no excuse for procrastinating as the lives of thousands more are at the mercy of those who failed to learn from the 1994 Rwandan experience.
