{NAIROBI: The African Union has deployed less than a quarter of the agreed 200 military and human rights observers to Burundi, amid differences with the country over their role in tackling a festering political crisis, sources close to the AU said Thursday.}

“The AU has only deployed 32 human rights observers and 15 military experts out of the 100 due for each category,” one African diplomat told AFP, speaking of “persistent differences” over their rules of deployment.

“The Burundian government wants to first endorse the observers’ reports before sending them on to the AU headquarters, which is something the organisation refuses,” the source explained.

On top of that the African Union wants its observers deployed at the border with Rwanda to be armed, which Bujumbura refuses, he added.

The pan-African organisation feels that “the Burundian government has done everything to delay this mission, even if things seem to be going in the right direction,” the same source said.

International efforts are growing to find an end to the turmoil in Burundi, which has seen hundreds of people killed and a quarter of a million flee the country.

The crisis began with President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial decision in April 2015 to run for a third term, a vote he won three months later amid an opposition boycott.

A senior Burundi official confirmed that there were problems with the deployment of the AU monitors.

The Burundi government is acting “in good faith” but “it must maintain national sovereignty,” the official told AFP.

According to a second African diplomat, the observers and military experts will be unable to properly carry out the work due to the “constraints” put on them.

The matter will be discussed during a three-day visit by a team from the AU’s Peace and Security Council, which arrived in Burundi on Wednesday.

Five African heads of state secured agreement from Burundi to increase to 200 the strength of its monitoring mission, which has been in place since November 2015.