Burundi Refugees

Opposition parties will boycott Burundi's elections in protest at the president's bid for a third term and on concerns that voting will not be fair, party officials said, escalating the nation's worst political crisis since a civil war ended in 2005.

The UN human rights chief said today he was alarmed by accounts from refugees fleeing Burundi about violence and threats by members of the ruling party's youth wing which risked tipping the African nation "over the edge" into conflict.

About 3,000 refugees fleeing political turmoil in Burundi have been infected in a cholera epidemic in neighbouring Tanzania, the United Nations said on Friday, stoking fears of a growing humanitarian crisis in Africa's Great Lakes.

Anti-government protesters in Burundi marched on the streets of the capital Bujumbura Friday, defying one of the heaviest pushes by police to end weeks of demonstrations.

The UN refugee agency on Tuesday voiced alarm at violence raging in a sprawling complex of refugee camps in northwestern Kenya that has left eight dead in the past week.

Opposition parties will boycott Burundi's elections in protest at the president's bid for a third term and on concerns that voting will not be fair, party officials said, escalating the nation's worst political crisis since a civil war ended in 2005.

The UN human rights chief said today he was alarmed by accounts from refugees fleeing Burundi about violence and threats by members of the ruling party's youth wing which risked tipping the African nation "over the edge" into conflict.

About 3,000 refugees fleeing political turmoil in Burundi have been infected in a cholera epidemic in neighbouring Tanzania, the United Nations said on Friday, stoking fears of a growing humanitarian crisis in Africa's Great Lakes.

Anti-government protesters in Burundi marched on the streets of the capital Bujumbura Friday, defying one of the heaviest pushes by police to end weeks of demonstrations.

The UN refugee agency on Tuesday voiced alarm at violence raging in a sprawling complex of refugee camps in northwestern Kenya that has left eight dead in the past week.