President Barack Obama notified the United States Congress on Friday that he plans to drop Burundi from the African Growth and Opportunity Act trade benefits program as from January 1 next year because of violence related to a political crisis in the country.
“In particular, the continuing crackdown on opposition members, which has included assassinations, extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and torture, have worsened significantly during the election campaign that returned President (Pierre) Nkurunziza to power earlier this year,” Reuters quoted Obama as saying in a letter to Congress.