Initiated by the East African Community (EAC), the effort toward sustainable peace and security in Burundi rallies support from partners and stakeholders well beyond the confines of the regional bloc.
Besides the United Nations, financial, technical and diplomatic support for the Peace Process also comes from the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU) and China among other donor countries.
By default, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), too, has stakes in the political conflict in Burundi.
As the interface of UN logistic and operational support to the process, the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary General (OSESG) in Burundi works in close collaboration with these partners and stakeholders. But with custody of the Inter-Burundi Dialogue in the hands of the EAC, and on the watch of the AU, these two institutions are foremost in UN cooperation with regional partners in support of the EAC initiative.
East African Community (EAC)
The Inter-Burundi Dialogue is spearheaded by the East African Community (EAC), a six-member regional economic community covering a land area of 1.82 million square kilometers and comprising of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The EAC appointed and President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa as Mediator and Facilitator of the process respectively.
The peace talks, which were initiated following the 2015 election crisis in Burundi, were launched by the Facilitator in March 2016. But this regional initiative to ease political tensions and stabilize the country remains deadlocked notwithstanding five rounds of talks.
The Government of Burundi, which objects to any form of dialogue with hardline opposition groups in exile, boycotted the fifth session of the talks, which were held in Arusha, Tanzania in October 2018. Frustrated by the lack of progress in the dialogue, the Facilitator hinted at the Arusha session that he just might be moderating the talks for the last time.
Benjamin Mkapa went on to seize the EAC of the impasse and at the close of its 20th summit in February 2019 the regional body issued a release to the effect that it will review the Facilitator's report and then decide on the way forward.
In its quest for long-term peace and stability in Burundi, the EAC partners with the UN through the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary General in Burundi (OSESG-B), which is part of a Joint Technical Working Group on the peace initiative. Besides the EAC and OSESG-B, this support group for the Facilitator also includes the African Union.
The office of the Special Envoy continues to monitor the situation very closely, and emphasising dialogue as the only pathway to a resolution of the country’s political crisis.
Similarly, the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the EAC on 5 March 2020 under which the two parties committed to cooperating on conflict prevention, electoral assistance, women, peace and security and gender equality, youth, peacebuilding, countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism.
“In a time of persisting multifaceted challenges across the globe, the strengthening of partnerships between DPPA and regional and sub-regional organizations is essential,” said Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo, who signed the MoU on behalf of DPPA.
The Republic of Burundi acceded to the EAC Treaty on 18 June 2007 and became a full member of the Community on 1 July 2007.
African Union (AU)
As a key broker in the Peace Process in Burundi, the African Union (AU) closely monitors the Inter-Burundi Dialogue, which is steered by the East African Community. To that end, the AU is represented in the Joint Technical Working Group on the dialogue. It is in this forum that it directly engages with the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary General in Burundi (OSESG-B) to support and assess the process.
Over all, the AU shares a common stance with the United Nations about the centrality of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement of 28 August 2000 as the frame of reference for all efforts towards lasting peace in Burundi. And like the UN, the continental bloc has also voiced concern about the slow progress in the Dialogue. It, too, decried the absence of the Government at the 5th round of the talks held in Arusha in October 2018, and insists that the talks remain the only viable platform for a sustainable peace settlement in Burundi.
The preventive diplomacy carried out in Burundi by the AU through its Peace and Security Council (PSC) is part of a long-time intervention and continued presence in the country. It was in Burundi that the AU deployed its first peace mission. In January 2003, the Continental Body authorized the deployment of an observer mission to monitor implementation of a ceasefire. The following month it approved the deployment of the African Mission in Burundi (AMIB) in keeping with the ceasefire agreements of 7 October and 2 December 2002. And in June 2004, AMIB was transferred to the United Nations Mission in Burundi.
It was against also in the context of this continued presence that the AU Commission dispatched some ten high-level missions, including a Panel of Five Heads of State and Government to Burundi in the course of 2014 to meet with the authorities as well as political actors, the civil society, and other stakeholder.