Kigali – Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has reached an agreement with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday to release 1,200 political prisoners and hold talks with political opponents.
Ban said at a press conference in Bujumbura after an hour-long meeting with Nkurunziza that during the talk, the president promised that 1,200 political prisoners would be released.
Ban arrived in Burundi on Monday to step up efforts to end months of political violence in the east African nation after Nkurunziza announced in April that he would seek a third term in office. He won an election in July.
Hundreds of people have been killed in protests, clashes and assassinations, while a newly formed rebel movement has vowed to oust him from power by the use of force.
Nkurunziza has insisted that he would not meet exiled opposition politicians, whom his government accuses of being behind a failed coup in May last year.
Opponents and supporters of Nkurunziza, have targeted each other in gun, rocket and grenade attacks.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
The violence has spread to the provinces.
Hours before Ban arrived, one person was killed and another was wounded in a grenade attack at a Bujumbura market.
The EU, the AU and the UN, have all sought to broker a peaceful solution to the crisis.
A decade ago, around 300,000 people were killed in a civil war in Burundi, fought between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. (dpa/NAN)
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