9 February 2008
Bujumbura — The summit of the East African heads of state which was slated to start today did not take place.
The First Vice-President of the Republic who moved to Kenya yesterday in order to attend this summit, as the President Nkurunziza continues his tour in America where he is meeting leaders of churches instead, says that the summit was cancelled to give chance to the facilitators to further the talks. The Tanzanian president Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and the former UN Secretary general, Koffi Ata Annan are trying to come up with an agreement to diffuse the violence in Kenya which has commenced to affected the economies of East African country.
The crisis in Kenya has already started to have adverse impact on Burundi. Raw materials which were channelled to Burundi via the port of Mombassa have become scarce in the city of Bujumbura. Recently, the head of state met with the Tanzanian president in Mwanza in a bid to talk about using what is known in Burundi as the central corridor for the transport of Burundi's goods. This corridor which link Bujumbura to Dar es Salaam is the shortest. Analysts say that the central corridor although cheapest presents some shortcomings as the Tanzanian rail way is not fully operational
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Burundi Réalités. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
