The legal showdown over who actually leads Burundi’s main opposition party, the National Congress for Liberty (CNL), has hit another major roadblock. The Court of Appeal was forced to put the case on ice for two months because the accused failed to show up in court.

This latest delay drags out a messy, long-running power struggle that has split the party right down the middle. Two rival factions have been fiercely fighting for legal control of the CNL. The internal feuding got so bad that the Burundian Ministry of Internal Affairs previously stepped in to freeze most of the party’s official activities.

With the court case now pushed back until September, the prolonged limbo is raising serious questions about the future of the opposition’s unity and its ability to mount a proper challenge in upcoming elections.

–ChannelAfrica–