Burundi Reaches a Truce Deal With One of Its Two Main Rebel Groups

The government of Burundi and one of two main rebel forces signed a cease-fire Tuesday to try to end a nine-year war, and African leaders told the other group to stop fighting or face sanctions.

The cease-fire deal struck by the government and the Forces for the Defense of Democracy rebel group, or FDD, followed months of haggling. President Pierre Buyoya of Burundi’s interim government shook hands with FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza after they signed the accord, brokered by African leaders, in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha. A summit statement said the FDD would become a political party and take part in “power-sharing arrangements of the transitional government” after discussions between the government and the FDD about how this could be accomplished.

The other rebel group, the National Liberation Forces, or FNL, dismissed the sanctions threat. It says it will negotiate only after government soldiers return to barracks, refugees are repatriated, political prisoners are released, and it is admitted as a political party.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who chairs a peace effort for Burundi, called on FNL rebels to lay down their weapons and warned, “We are on the verge of some pretty robust sanctions that will stop them from fighting.”

The war between rebels from the ethnic Hutu majority and the Tutsi-led army has killed an estimated 300,000 people in the Central African country. A government with power shared between Hutus and Tutsis was inaugurated last year. But until the latest summit, the government had not managed to sign a truce with either rebel group.