Brussels - Top EU officials called on Monday for action to quell violence in Burundi, after dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the African country in recent days.
“We are working in these hours … to help stop the violence,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told journalists in Brussels ahead of a meeting with the bloc’s foreign ministers.
“It is urgent that [dialogue in Burundi] starts immediately.”
“The events of the last hours are rather catastrophic,” Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders added.
“I hope that, with our colleagues, we will be able to send messages to the African Union and the UN Security Council.”
“There has to be action, there is much too much violence now in the country,” he added.
Burundi has been gripped by violence between police and armed groups since April, when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would seek a third term in office.
Nkurunziza won the July election, which was boycotted by the opposition.
At least 87 people were killed after insurgents attacked military barracks in Burundi on Friday.
The attackers are believed to belong to armed groups opposed to Nkuruziza’s third term.
After the attacks, security forces took action at the weekend that left “many people” dead, including by “summary executions,” Mogherini said in a statement issued on Sunday evening.
She warned of the danger of the crisis spreading to Burundi’s surrounding region.
There have been fears that atrocities could be committed, with the United Nations warning last month that the situation in Burundi had started to resemble that of Rwanda before the 1994 genocide.
DPA