African Union mission commander leaves for Burundi
The South African commander of troops destined for a three-nation peace mission to supervise ceasefire agreements Burundi left for the central African country Wednesday, military officials said.
Colonel John Rolt, South African National Defence Force (SANDF) spokesman, said Major General Sipho Binda was assessing the situation ahead of the arrival of an expected force of some 3,200 troops.
"He has travelled to Burundi to go and look at the situation and to make an appraisal," Rolt told AFP.
The SANDF had not yet announced troop deployments for the African Union mission, which will also include soldiers from Mozambique and Ethiopia, but said they would be deployed in phases -- the last expected to be by the end of May.
The force was originally to have been deployed before the end of last year to supervise ceasefire accords signed by the Burundi government with three of the four Hutu rebel groups active in the central African country.
More than 300,000 people have died in Burundi's civil war which has since 1993 pitted Hutu rebel groups against the Tutsi-led army, according to UN figures.
The Forces for the Defence of Democracy and two lesser rebel groups have signed ceasefires with the government, but the deal has not been respected, with both sides accusing the other of violating it.
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09 Avril 2003 à 15:11 dans
- zsandf (anglais)
