Monitoring press freedom and international affairs from Mid-Missouri Public Radio and the Missouri School of Journalism

Burundi on edge

17 March 2016
Burundian protesters march during an anti-government demonstration against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term in Cibitoke neighborhood of the capital Bujumbura, June 2, 2015. (EPA/Dai Kurokawa)

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza's announcement in April that he would seek a third five-year term set off a year of instability in the central African nation that has left hundreds dead and forced a quarter million people from their homes.

With reports of opposition militias training refugees in camps in neighboring Rwanda and Nkurunziza's government using coded language to suggest the opposition is a Tutsi attempt to grab power, fears are rising that Burundi could descend into the ethnic bloodletting that killed 300,000 during the 1993-2005 civil war.

On this edition of Global Journalist, a discussion of the renewed instability in a region with a history of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Joining the program are:

  • Nkem Ifejika, a presenter and correspondent for the BBC World Service program Newsday.
  • Elsa Buchanan, a freelance journalist who has reported on Burundi for outlets including the International Business Times.
  • Michael Boyce, an advocate at Refugees International and co-author of a report on Burundi's conflict.
  • Cara Jones, a professor of political science who researches Burundi at Mary Baldwin College.

Monitoring press freedom and international affairs from Mid-Missouri Public Radio and the Missouri School of Journalism.
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