BUJUMBURA: Members of the UN Security Council arrived in Burundi Thursday to try to help end political unrest that sparked deadly violence.

France, the US and Angola are leading the 15-member council delegation that will be in Burundi until Friday.

“We’ve seen escalating violence, climate of fear and tension before in Burundi. Immediate, inclusive (political) dialogue held outside Burundi vital,” Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said on Twitter ahead of the trip.

UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al-Hussein in a report last week spoke of gang rapes of women by security forces, torture and signs of ethnic repression.

His office cited growing signs that Tutsis are being targeted in the Hutu-majority country that borders Rwanda, where a 1994 Hutu-led genocide targeted Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to seek re-election last April touched off street protests that led to a failed coup in May and a rebellion that has left the country on the brink of civil war. Opponents and supporters of Nkurunziza in the capital, Bujumbura, have been targeting each other in gun, rocket and grenade attacks and the violence has spread to the provinces.

There has been a wave of extrajudicial killings that human rights activists blame on government security forces.

Vital Nshimirimana, a Burundian human rights activist, told The Associated Press that the UN must be prepared to tackle what he said was the root cause of the conflict: the president’s decision to seek a third term despite widespread opposition.