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The UN Security Council has urged rebel groups in Burundi to enter ceasefire negotiations this week, while expressing ongoing support for the transitional government in the country.
In a statement on Tuesday, Council President Jeremy Greenstock said that Council members were looking forward to the "high-level" peace talks arranged to take place mid-July in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, adding it was important to make early progress towards a ceasefire.
While expressing support for "the whole Arusha process" that led to the August 2000 peace accord in Burundi, he said Council members underlined their "stern warning against any attempts by others to undermine the present coalition".
The interim Chairman of the African Union, Amara Essy, has called on all the stakeholders in the Burundi conflict "to exert utmost effort" to end violence in the country. On Tuesday, he urged all the Burundi parties "to iron out their differences" through dialogue and "in the spirit of compromise", warning that the prevailing situation of increased armed violence and wide differences between the political parties in the country could "cast doubts" on the consensus upon which the Arusha agreement and the transitional institutions had been built.
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