Micheal Kafando, a senior United Nations official noted that while the security situation is calm, the potential for volatility is rife, as political tension persists in Burundi.
The UN Refugee Agency said in a statement that the appeal, backed by 26 UNHCR partners, was necessary to assist refugees struggling to survive in neighboring countries where efforts were falling short of acceptable humanitarian standards.
The report indicates that the crimes are taking place in the context of Killings, torture, sexual violence, degrading treatment, enforced disappearances and arbitrary arrests, among others. Alleged perpetrators of the violence include high-level officials, of the National Intelligence Services and the national police force, military officials, and members of the youth league of the ruling party, known as Imbonerakure.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR, more than 384,000 Burundian refugees have fled to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo since the outbreak of violence in April 2015.
The humanitarian appeal is the culmination of a global effort to assess needs and decide collective response strategies by hundreds of organizations delivering food, shelter, health care, protection, emergency education and other basic assistance to people in conflict- and disaster-affected regions.
The decision followed the rejection, by the Burundian government, of a Council resolution on establishing a police officers component there. The resolution authorized up to 228 UN individual police officers for the component, to be deployed in the capital, Bujumbura, and throughout Burundi, for one year.
Most of these have fled from Muyinga, Makamba, Cankuzo, Kirundo and Ruyigi provinces in search of asylum and international protection. The crisis in Burundi was sparked off by the announcement by President Pierre Nkurunziza, of his intention to run for president, for a third time in office.
With 512,968 refugees and asylum-seekers, Uganda has now become the 8th-largest refugee hosting country in the world and the third largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, according to UNHCRs annual Global Trends report that tracks forced displacement worldwide.
ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda says her office has reviewed a number of communications and reports detailing acts of killing, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as cases of enforced disappearances in Burundi over the last one year.
Jean Bosco Barege, Burundis Ambassador to Uganda, told a media conference in Kampala this afternoon, that under no circumstances will the government hold negotiations with the coup plotters, who unsuccessfully tried to oust Nkurunziza from power in May 2015.
The UN Secretary General is concerned that terrorism and violent extremism are a growing threat on the continent. Indeed, Al-Shabaab, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram, and the Lords Resistance Army had established a presence and expanded their activities across borders.
The letter urges AU leaders to use all diplomatic leverage to secure consent from the Burundian government for the deployment of an African peacekeeping force, and to begin formal talks on setting up a hybrid judicial court to try alleged perpetrators of human rights abuses in South Sudan.
President Museveni says the delay by African countries to intervene in the crisis has seen growing clashes between government forces and the opposition.
The talks, scheduled to kick off on December 28, will be chaired by President Yoweri Museveni, who was appointed mediator by the East African Community, and held in Arusha, Tanzania.
The polls that were boycotted by major opposition parties and civil society organizations put Nkurunziza at 69.4 of the total votes cast winning him the contested third term.
The petition by the opposition parties comes just a week after leaders from the EAC agreed on mediation efforts to be led by the President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. His mediation role has however been challenged by the opposition parties.
Many people have experienced difficulties while trying to leave Burundi. Several women have reported threats of rape from armed men, and having to bribe their way through roadblocks. Some have walked for hours through the bush with their children.
