"The contigent of troops will come after. We will prepare and arrange everything for the coming troops so that they arrive in favorable conditions," the African Force's future second-in-command, General Tadese, said.

More than 900 soldiers from South Africa have already been deployed in the country.

The peacekeeping force will be made up of some 2,800 soldiers, including 1,600 South Africans, 980 Ethiopians and 290 Mozambicans.

The remainder of the South African contingent is expected to arrive on August 5 while the troops from Mozambique and Ethiopia are due to arrive on May 22 and June 2 respectively.

The African Force was mandated by the African Union to monitor a peace ceasefire signed last year between Burundi's government and three of the country's four Hutu rebel movements.

"Now we are busy planning the details for encampments in five provinces", commander of the African Force, South African General Sipho Binda, explained.

However the ceasefire signed in December between the government and Pierre Nkurunziza's Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) has been violated repeatedly with both sides accusing the other of breaking it.

"We are calling him (Nkurunziza) to come on board. Our principal political masters are helping (us) to move forward," Sipho Binda said.

More than 300,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Burundi since the civil war erupted in 1993 with the assassination of the first democratically elected Hutu president Melchior Ndadaye.

WAR.WIRE