The reasons for Burundi’s absence in the Special Session of the Conference on the African Continental Free Trade Area

BUJUMBURA March 22nd (ABP) – On March 14, 2018, President of the Republic of Burundi, Mr. Pierre Nkurunziza, sent a letter to the Chairman of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Moussa Faki Mahamat telling him that Burundi cannot participate in the Special Session of the Union Conference on the African Continental Free Trade Area, which took place in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, on March 21, 2018.
According to that correspondence, the session was timely for African countries to overcome the challenges of realizing trade between Africans and Burundi’s participation was more than a necessity. “We would like to be present at the conference, but the place chosen is an obstacle to the participation of Burundi, firstly for security reasons of the members of its delegation, as this country hosts part of the coup plotters of May 2015 and the terrorists who bereaved Burundi during the 2015 revolt, and on the other hand, because Rwanda has violated the international treaties and conventions it has ratified by recruiting, training and arming refugees, including child soldiers, in full view of the international community with impunity, “the correspondence continues.
To this end, the Republic of Burundi has lodged a complaint against the Republic of Rwanda at the United Nations, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region and the East African Community. This correspondence regrets, however, the fact that the case does not record significant progress.
Through the same correspondence, the President of the Republic of Burundi says he hopes that with the personal involvement of the chairman of the African Union Commission, the year 2018 during which the African Union is presided over by President Paul Kagame is the best time for the African Union to seriously address this issue.

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