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South Africa's first contingent of troops who will form part of a protection unit for returning exiled Burundi politicians arrived in Bujumbura, the capital, on Thursday, news organisations reported.
Radio reports said that some 30 of the 700 South Africans earmarked for the Burundi mission had arrived. They are to be joined later by troops from Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. The need to form the protection unit initially with its foreign component became necessary after negotiators failed - in recent meetings - to agree on the total strength, recruitment and training of an all-Burundi unit. As a result, Burundi peace mediator Nelson Mandela recently asked South African President Thabo Mbeki to provide the troops so that exiled politicians could begin returning home in time to take part in the power-sharing transitional government due to be sworn in on 1 November.
Hutu rebels have been fighting the largely Tutsi government and army for the past eight years in a war in which at least 200,000 people have died.
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