Burundi will allow the United Nations Security Council to send police into the country, the foreign affairs minister told Reuters news agency, after months of political tension.
The 15-member council on Friday unanimously adopted a French-drafted resolution asking the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to offer options for a police deployment to the East African country where violence has threatened to escalate into ethnic conflict.
Burundi descended into chaos in April 2015 after President Pierre Nkurunziza declared his bid for a controversial third term in office, one which he went on to win in the July poll.
The violence has seen 439 people killed, with more that 250,000 fleeing the country.
“This U.N. resolution is fine for us since it takes into account everything we have been saying,” Alain Nyamitwe, Burundi’s foreign minister, told Reuters.
“We have always been open to experts but never to sending of peacekeeping troops in Burundi,” he said, adding “a few” U.N. police could help stabilise the country.
