The African Union has warned that the crisis in troubled Burundi risks worsening into a bigger disaster for the country and the wider region following the killing of a senior military official over the weekend.

The African Union has warned that the crisis in troubled Burundi risks worsening into a bigger disaster for the country and the wider region following the killing of a senior military official over the weekend.

Unidentified gunmen killed a former chief of staff, Colonel JEAN BIKOMAGU outside his home in Bujumbura. In a statement, AU Commission chairwoman NKOSAZANA DLAMINI-ZUMA condemned BIKOMAGU’s killing. It was the second high-profile assassination this month as the fallout from the re-election of President PIERRE NKURUNZIZA worsened in the central African nation.

NKURUNZIZA was declared winner of elections held in July, for a third term that both opponents and Western powers said election violated the constitution and provisions of a peace deal which ended a 1993-2005 civil war between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority.