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Ministers meet in Tanzania before regional summit on Burundi

Xinhua, May 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Foreign ministers of the East African Community (EAC) partner states convened on Saturday in Dar es Salaam to give their deliberations that will be presented before the regional leaders who will meet on Sunday to discuss Burundi's political impasse.

"The EAC ministers discussed a report submitted by a team of lawyers which was sent to Burundi to study a court ruling that gave a green light to President Nkurunziza to seek for re-election, " said Bernard Membe, Tanzania's Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Membe told a news conference that all the five leaders from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi will attend the summit.

Apart from the EAC leaders, South African President Jacob Zuma will also participate as a special guest in the summit for his pivotal role in the negotiations that had succeeded in bringing peace and stability to Burundi following the civil war.

While Burundi's political crisis is deepening, key role of the EAC leaders' meeting is to find a final and lasting solution for the political turmoil that has forced thousands of civilians to flee the tiny central African country.

Burundi has been thrown into a political crisis following growing opposition to an attempt by President Nkurunziza to run for a third term in office.

Earlier this month, Burundi's constitutional court ruled that the president's bid to stand for another term by direct universal suffrage for five years was not contrary to the constitution of Burundi, clearing Nkurunziza to run for the controversial third term.

In their first summit in Dar es Salaam on May 13, the leaders decided to send a team of lawyers, which was led by former Tanzanian Prime Minister Joseph Warioba, to Burundi's capital Bujumbura to look if the court ruling was proper. Endi