Q & AAfrica

Burundi on a Knife’s Edge

Burundi on a Knife’s Edge
Demonstrators climb aboard a military truck as they celebrate what they perceive to be an attempted military coup d’etat, Bujumbura, Burundi, May 13, 2015 (AP photo by Berthier Mugiraneza).

Burundi is in the midst of a deepening political crisis that has many observers worried about the prospects of mass violence. Dozens of people have been killed and tens of thousands of people have fled in recent weeks. On Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare launched a coup attempt against President Pierre Nkurunziza.

World Politics Review partnered with the Global Dispatches podcast to produce this interview with WPR contributor Jonathan W. Rosen on the situation in the East African country.

Rosen, speaking from Kigali, Rwanda, where he is reporting on the evolving situation, is interviewed by Global Dispatches host Mark Leon Goldberg. Rosen explains the roots of the conflict and its proximate causes, and makes a compelling case that the main sources of tension are political and not ethnic.

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