Burundi‘s military says it will ask for a proportionate number of soldiers to be withdrawn from each African Union member country, rather than solely Burundian soldiers.
This comes after the AU issued a request for Burundi to withdraw one-thousand soldiers serving in a peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
The African Union is gradually scaling back its Amisom force as Somalia’s nascent armed forces are trained and deployed to replace them.
Burundi is the second biggest contributor with 21 500 strong peacekeeping force with 5 400 soldiers.
Uganda, Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia are also contributors.
The request, made through a diplomatic document called a note verbale, came amid recent tension between Burundi and the AU.
The AU has called on Burundi, criticised abroad for its record on human rights, to ease its hard-line stance on dissent and talk with its exiled opposition.
