The AU is providing 3,500 peacekeeping troops from Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa under a peace agreement to try to end the civil war which began in 1993. According to Major General Sipho Binda, the South African commander of the African Mission in Burundi (AMIB), the AU peacekeeping force will be deployed in Burundi before May 1 (the day the transitional government is due to take power). 

Apparently, the left hand doesn't talk to the right hand. The day before, a South African defense forces spokesman could not say when the Mozambican and Ethiopian troops would join the South Africans. Binda had just arrived in Bujumbura with a 50-strong planning team and would spend a week in the country assessing the situation. - Adam Geibel