Burundi peace talks to resume without opposition

Burundi’s main opposition group said Wednesday it had not been invited to long-stalled peace talks aimed at solving a year-long crisis, demolishing hopes the meeting could help strike a deal.

Talks were expected to run from May 21-24 in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha but key umbrella opposition group CNARED were not invited, the group’s spokesman Pancrace Cimpaye said.

The Burundian government refuses to sit with key opponents who it accuses of involvement in a failed May 2015 coup and of months of violence including grenade and rocket attacks.

Hundreds have been killed and a quarter of a million people have fled Burundi since President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial decision in April 2015 to run for a third term, a vote he won amid opposition boycotts in July.