EU extends Burundi sanctions
The Council of the European Union has extended for one year a travel ban and asset freeze against ‘four persons [in Burundi] whose ‘activities are deemed to be undermining democratic governance and obstructing the search for a peaceful political solution in Burundi.’
The Council said it remained ‘profoundly concerned by information on continuing extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, forced disappearances, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and gender-based violence, including sexual violence committed in Burundi since April 2015.’
Unrest was triggered two years ago by the re-election of President Nkurunziza for a third term in office. In a briefing on the situation in the country, NGO, International Crisis Group said that violence, fear, ‘socio-economic decline and deepening social fractures’ have characterised the president’s third term, and that ‘250,000 Burundians have fled, including a significant portion of the political and economic establishment as well as civil society activists. The flight has drained Burundi of its most dynamic citizens and exposed divisions between the regime on one hand, and the army, the capital and the Tutsi community on the other.’
For further information, see:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:JOL_2015_257_R_0009
