Italy has contributed a further US $437,500 to help fund the African Union's (AU) peacekeeping force in Burundi, an AU statement said on Tuesday. The Italian government had earlier given $250,000, it said.
The AU mission, which has soldiers from Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa, has been deployed in Burundi since May 2003 to oversee the implementation of ceasefire agreements signed between the transitional government and former armed rebel groups.
Germany and the UK have also contributed towards the force, while the US and UK have made bilateral contributions to Ethiopia and Mozambique, the statement said. The European Union has also pledged $31.2 million.
Only one rebel group, the faction of the Forces nationales de liberation-Parti de liberation du peuple Hutu, led by Agathon Rwasa, has not signed up to the peace process in Burundi.
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