Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has called on his fellow
nationals living as refugees in Tanzania to return home and rebuild
their country.
The Burundian leader was in Tanzania
Thursday for his first foreign trip in more than two years, seeking to
revive political dialogue on the crisis in his country.
Nkurunziza
arrived with a heavily armed escort in the northwest Tanzanian town of
Ngara, about 15 kilometres (eight miles) from the Rwandan border.
He
was welcomed by Tanzanian President John Magufuli at a football ground,
where he was honoured with a 21-gun salute, live TV coverage on
Tanzanian television showed. The two leaders also held bilateral talks.
Speaking in Kiswahili, Nkurunziza also welcomed Tanzanian businesspeople to Bujumbura.
“Tunawaomba watanzania mje kufanya biashara Burundi (We ask Tanzanians to come and do business in Burundi),” he said.
The visit had been kept secret up to the last moment.
"Their
discussion will cover, among other issues, the peace process" in
Burundi, Macocha Tembele, an aide to former Tanzanian president Benjamin
Mkapa who has been working as a facilitator in the crisis, said in a
tweet.
A diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting had been initiated by Magufuli.
"It was approved by
the East African Community (EAC) in a bid to persuade Nkurunziza to take
part in inter-Burundian dialogue without conditions," the source said,
referring to the six-nation association gathering Burundi, Kenya,
Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
"The
international community is expecting a lot from this meeting, because
Magufuli is one of the few people to have influence" over Nkurunziza,
the source said.
Burundi
has been in the grip of a crisis since Nkurunziza's controversial
decision in April 2015 to run for a third term in office.
He won elections that July that were boycotted by the opposition. It branded the vote a violation of the constitution.
Between 500 and 2,000 people have been killed in clashes, according to UN and NGO sources.
More than 400,000 people have fled and dozens of opposition activists have been forced into exile.
ALSO READ: Burundi refugees refuse to return home
The
last time Nkurunziza left the country was in May 2015 when he went to
Dar es Salaam in Tanzania for an EAC summit, but rushed home to tackle
an attempted coup.
-Additional reporting by The Citizen
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