In Case You Missed It: 12/14/15 — 12/21/15

AFP

Months of street protests in Burun­di have turned into reg­u­lar armed attacks

The most impor­tant in this week’s head­lines out of and con­cern­ing Africa, for those who need help catch­ing up.

In this week’s news, Burun­di takes cen­ter stage in dis­cus­sions at the African Union, the U.S. Sen­ate unan­i­mous­ly pass­es Elec­tri­fy Africa Act.

1. U.S. Sen­ate Pass­es 2015 Elec­tri­fy Africa Bill

The leg­is­la­tion which requires the pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States to cre­ate a com­pre­hen­sive strat­e­gy for U.S. engage­ment with sub-Saha­ran Africa to devel­op a mix of “pow­er solu­tions” to boost elec­tric­i­ty access and reli­a­bil­i­ty in the con­ti­nent, is aimed at stim­u­lat­ing eco­nom­ic growth and access to education.

In a state­ment released by the For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee, Mar­co Rubio, noted:

“The Elec­tri­fy Africa Act will enhance our cur­rent assis­tance pro­grams in Africa and help expand access to elec­tric­i­ty, which is essen­tial to sup­port pover­ty reduc­tion and pro­mote eco­nom­ic development.”

2. Burun­di Rejects Inter­ven­tion from African Union 

With increas­ing ten­sion and con­cerns about insta­bil­i­ty and a repeat of the 1994 geno­cide, the African Union (AU) pro­pos­al for a 5,000 strong force known as the African Pre­ven­tion and Pro­tec­tion Mis­sion in Burun­di has been reject­ed by the country’s government.

“An African Union offi­cial says the con­ti­nen­tal body and the rest of the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty will not sit by and watch the esca­la­tion of vio­lence and human rights vio­la­tions and abus­es con­tin­ue in Burun­di,” writes James But­ty from the Voice of Amer­i­ca.

Burun­di has seen an esca­la­tion of vio­lence since cur­rent pres­i­dent, Pierre Nku­run­z­izi was re-elect­ed for a third term after a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment that allowed him to return to power.

Mean­while in neigh­bor­ing Rwan­da, pres­i­dent Paul Kagame dan­gles the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a third term, accord­ing to U.S. Nation­al Pub­lic Radio, NPR. The idea has received plen­ty of reac­tion from around the world, includ­ing reac­tions from the While House, urg­ing Kagame to respect terms limits.