The African Union has agreed "in principal" to send troops to Burundi to stop the country from spiralling into anarchy, a diplomat said on Friday.

The country's current political crisis pits supporters of President Pierre Nkurunziza against opponents, who say his re-election in July for a third term violated the constitution in a nation still reeling from its civil war that occurred between 1993 and 2005 and left 300,000 people dead.

Sitting in Addis Ababa, the AU was considering an unprecedented plan to send 5,000 troops from the East Africa Standby force into the strife-torn nation on the day the union warned it would not allow another "genocide" on the continent, which could have serious ethnic overtones as well as alarming regional consequences.

The AU's Peace and Security Council (PSC) "took a decision yesterday to send troops to protect civilians," senior AU official Bonaventure Cakpo Guebegde said.

He added "These troops will be under the banner of the East African Standby Force."

Sources: MENA