The African Union (AU) Peace & Security Council (PSC) decided to send a 5 000-strong peacekeeping mission to Burundi to prevent the growing violence there spinning out of control.

Diplomats said on Thursday the council had recommended that the African Prevention & Protection Mission in Burundi (MAPROBU) as it is to be called, should go into Burundi whether or not the government there wants it.

‏Rwandan ambassador-designate to Belgium, Olivier Nduhungirehe, tweeted that MAPROBU would have a strength of 5 000 military personnel and police and would be deployed for an initial period of six months, renewable.

“MAPROBU will mainly be in charge of preventing any deterioration of the security situation & protecting civilians under imminent threat,” said Nduhungirehe‏.

He said the Peace and Security Council had urged the Burundi government to confirm within 96 hours its acceptance of the deployment of MAPROBU. The council had decided, in the case of non-acceptance by the Burundian government, to recommend the implementation of Article 4 (h) of the AU’s Constitutive Act.

That article authorises the AU to intervene militarily in a member state, even without its permission, in grave circumstances, to prevent genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Nduhungirehe also tweeted that the council had asked the AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to communicate, within ten days, a list of Burundian stakeholders to be targeted by sanctions.

At time of writing the AU itself had not officially announced its decision to send the MAPROBU mission to Burundi.

The AU peace and security commissioner Smail Chergui, though, had tweeted; “A very clear message coming out of the ongoing PSC meeting: the killings in #Burundi must stop immediately.”

And the council itself had tweeted from the meeting; “Africa will not allow another genocide to take place on its soil: #PSC Members reiterate.”

The decision to intervene militarily follows growing violence in Burundi since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April his intention to run for a third term as president despite the two-term limit written into the constitution. He won the elections in July.

Nkurunziza’s decision has provoked street protests, some of which have been violently put down by the police and the army, an attempted military coup in May and more recently an incipient civil war.

Last Friday about 90 Burundians were killed when armed rebels mounted frontal attacks on three military bases