ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the Burundi crisis and the EAC. It raises the question of civilians’ protection in times of crisis and conflict by analysing the operationalisation of one of the African Standby Forces. As a security pillar within the African Peace and Security Architecture, the Eastern African Standby Force (EASF) is also considered as an Eastern African regional integration tool towards ensuring the security of the East African populations. By focusing on the 2015 crisis in Burundi from a conflict-management perspective, this chapter highlights concerns about the future of political integration for Eastern African countries if security and political issues are not properly handled in regional politics. The security integration tool as promoted by the African Union in theory and Eastern African communities in practice, raised many challenges of EASF ranging from hegemonic concerns, decision-making institutions, power delegation between regional organisations, conflicts between Member States within the Regional Economic Communities and, last but not least, the institutional cultures of Partner States and leaders. The chapter concludes that these challenges must be addressed if the EASF is to remain a core policy tool as the new security regionalism approach in the EAC.
