Burundi soldiers

A prominent opposition politician in Burundi called on United Nations on Friday to send a peacekeeping force quickly to help deal with a surge in violence, after the Security Council said it was looking at ways to boost its presence there.

Highlighting growing concerns about unrest, the European Union mission in the African state said it was temporarily making a small reduction in staff and pulling out foreign family members.

Burundi has been mired in a political crisis that has raised fears of slide in ethnic conflict in a region where memories of the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda are still raw.

Scores have died in protests and killings and hundreds of thousands have fled since President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would seek a third term in April – a move the opposition said violated a constitution meant to keep the peace after Burundi’s civil war a decade ago.

Nkurunziza said a court ruling allowed his bid and went on to win a disputed election in July.

The U.N. Security Council asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday to report within 15 days on options to boost the U.N. presence. The United Nations also joined the African Union and the EU in a call for dialogue.

“We are satisfied that the U.N. has unanimously taken such a decision which we hope will also push for dialogue,” Charles Nditije, head of the opposition UPRONA group, told Reuters.

“We deplore, however, that they didn’t decide to deploy peace enforcement forces in the near future,” he said. “We also regret that they didn’t agree on sanctions.”

An earlier version of the French draft resolution threatened sanctions against individuals behind the violence.

The U.S. Embassy sent non-essential staff and staff family members away in May, but on Nov. 3 said they were returning. The United States still warns U.S. citizens against non-essential travel to Burundi.

Burundi, which emerged from an ethnically charged civil war in 2005, has been mired in a political crisis that has sparked a failed coup, assassinations and other violence since April, when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would seek a third term.

The president went on to win a July election. The opposition said the vote was riddled with abuses and accused the president of violating the constitution and a peace deal that ended the civil war by seeking another five years in office.

The president has cited a court ruling saying his new term was legitimate.

Burundi’s 12-year civil war that left 300,000 dead pitted rebel groups of the Hutu majority against the army which was at the time led by minority Tutsis.

Burundi has the same ethnic divide behind the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994 in which 800,000 people – mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus – were massacred.