Burundi

Burundi took a faltering but ambitious step towards ending eight years of ethnic conflict on Thursday, as the country's dominant Tutsi elite formally embraced the Hutu majority with the installation of a transitional government of national unity.

Nelson Mandela, former South African president and mediator of the Burundi peace process, together with several African leaders, are scheduled to attend the installation of a transitional government in the Burundian capital Bujumbura on Thursday, 1 November.

Burundi's national assembly adopted by acclamation on Saturday the transitional constitution that will guide the workings of the three-year government due to begin functioning on 1 Nov., the state-owned ABP news agency reported.

A group of five pro-Tutsi political parties said on Monday they would boycott the transitional government due to be inaugurated on 1 November unless President Pierre Buyoya alters the allocation of ministerial posts he agreed with the opposition umbrella of pro-Hutu parties known as the G-7.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says it has completed in most of Burundi's seven provinces the distribution of 4,000 mt of food to some 375,000 people.

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