UN Security Council envoys arrived in
Bujumbura today to encourage all parties to Burundi's devastating civil war to reinforce a fragile peace process and clinch a ceasefire deal.
"Returning to Bujumbura after one year, the Security Council mission will acknowledge with praise what has been achieved," explained mission leader French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte shortly before landing in the capital.
"The transition (power-sharing government) has been working for six months, with a president, vice-president, government, assembly and senate. It is a remarkable success," he said.
"The mission will again stress that the fighting by armed groups is meaningless and must stop now," he said.
Burundi's main political actors signed a power-sharing deal in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2000, but the two rebel groups from the large Hutu majority did not, and they remain in armed conflict with the army, which is dominated by the Tutsi minority elite.
AFP