UN office kicked out of ‘slaughterhouse’

THE UN human rights office said yesterday that Burundi’s government had asked it to leave, months after the outgoing UN rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, called the country one of the “most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times”.

Sources within the UN office in Burundi said they were given two months to leave. The East African nation’s government has been angered by UN reports describing alleged abuses amid the political turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for another term in 2015.

Burundi suspended its co-operation with the UN rights office in 2016, accusing it of “complicity with coup plotters and Burundi’s enemies”. Yesterday, Foreign Minister Ezechiel Nibigira said: “We will communicate with you when we are well prepared.”

Amnesty International called the news “deeply disappointing”.