Burundi accuses Kagame of trying to stoke conflict

The ruling party in Burundi has accused Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame of attempting to trigger ethnic violence in Burundi.

In a statement on the state broadcaster, CNDD-FDD spokesman Jelase Ndabirabe started off by thanking African leaders for deciding, at their weekend summit in Ethiopia, not to send an African Union force to Burundi.

He went on to say that the proposed force was masterminded by Mr Kagame and Burundi's former President Pierre Buyoya in a plot to get Mr Buyoya back into power.

And he suggested the two would have gone as far as sacrificing some people from their own Tutsi ethnic group to reach their aim in Burundi, which has a majority Hutu population. 

Unrest broke out in Burundi after the president announced in April that he was standing for re-election

Mr Kagame and Mr Buyoya have not commented on the allegation, but Rwanda has repeatedly denied that it is interfering in Burundi.  

Mr Ndabirabe alleged that other people involved in the plot included the US ambassador  to the UN, Samantha Power, and former Belgian Prime Minister Louis Michel.