Fighting in Bujumbura province leaves 8 dead - AngolaPress

Bujumbura, Burundi, 12/26 - At least eight persons, including six rebels, were killed Saturday in clashes between Burundi government troops and the rebel National Liberation Front (FNL) in several areas north-west of Bujumbura, army spokesman, Maj. Adolphe Manirakiza affirmed here Sunday.

Manirakiza said government soldiers shot the six rebels as they attempted to loot properties belonging to civilians in Kajeke, a remote area in Bubanza province northwest of Bujumbura.

He told journalists on Sunday that government troops captured two rebels and seized two rifles from them, as one loyalist soldier got killed in the fighting.

Meanwhile, an unidentified-armed group caused havoc Saturday night in nearby Cibitoke province where they attacked several families in Nyamitanga village.

Government forces quickly moved in and killed one of the assailants, but the remaining members of the gang fled with 12 goats, two motorcycles and unspecified amount of cash, the Burundi army spokesman said.

But he noted that no major incident occurred on Christmas eve in the Burundi capital, where security had been reinforced in anticipation of any rebel attack.

Out of the seven Hutu rebel groups that were active in Burundi, the FNL is the only faction still defiantly fighting around Bujumbura.

http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=402745

Congo Earthquake

BBC news reported on the earthquake in DR Congo near Lake Tanganyika and the Tanzanian border on Monday 5 December, but no further news or updates have been added. The shocks were felt in Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, and by the Indian Ocean. Hundreds fled in panic from offices in Nairobi, 1000Km from the epicentre. The quake hit with a 6.8 magnitude at 1219GMT, the US Geological Survey said. East Africa's Great Rift Valley runs along a geological fault line, but has largely escaped major quakes in recent years. The epicentre is about 90 miles from Kigoma where we briefly spent some time on our way to a refugee camp. BBC aricle is:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4499938.stm We understand that the Rema guys in Bujumbura, Burundi are OK and have not been personally affected by it, but there have been some fatalities. In DR Congo, eyewitness reports from Kalimie say it has been “an incredibly difficult and frightening time” for the people of Kalemie, the town nearest the epicentre. CMS are reporting that over 300 hundred houses fell down. Six people died. There was a strong wind off Lake Tanganyika causing major damage to houses; some collapsed, roofs come off. Many people are now homeless.

You could ask why there has been so little coverage of this event in the media, there are probably two main reasons; western media know that there will be little interest from the public - not many of us have friends, relations or business interests there. Also, there is little infrastructure so news will only get out slowly. it is interesting that this is still the case despite ubiquitous mobile phones, internet access in even the remotest of places. By the time movies and eyewitness reports reach the mainstream media, the news has moved on and lost interest.

Deepa Verma Jivram at the Sunday Monitor in Uganda has an interesting article looking at earthquakes in the region. http://www.monitor.co.ug/sunday/oped/oped12115.php

BURUNDI: New debt relief from African Development Bank

The African Development Bank (ADB) Group said on Monday Burundi had met the conditions needed to qualify for US $226.01 million ($149.35 million in Net Present Value terms) in debt relief.
"Burundi qualified for [the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries] HIPC debt relief after having demonstrated good progress in stabilising its economy and continuously implementing sound policies for macroeconomic and financial stability, growth and poverty reduction."
The ADB and ADF boards said although Burundi still faced a fragile political and socioeconomic situation, the country had made significant progress in stabilising the economy, implementing financial and structural reforms and initiating the restoration of social services.
In August Burundi became the 28th country to qualify for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's enhanced HIPC initiative.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/0be264f347fd35f3c45d0c0b3260c54b.htm

BBC NEWS | Africa | Burundi's born-again ex-rebel leader

Sorry, this site has been a bit neglected - 300 hits?! who are you all?!
Anyway, I shall be making more effort to keep this up to date with developments in Burundi. Of which there have been many since we were at the refugee camps.

Main change has been the new president, Pierre Nkurunziza, who has been making a few pronouncements such as 'free primary education', 'no to government Toyota Landcruisers'.
However he does have an enourmous job to do.

Reuters AlertNet - IN FOCUS: Hope and fear as Burundi's exiles come home

“I didn’t want to come back until there had been a change of government,” said Buchumi Cezarie, 30, a mother-of-four who fled ethnic violence in the northern Giteranyi region in 1996.

She was speaking at a U.N.-run transit camp in Mugano in Burundi’s northeastern Muyinga province, after registering for an identity card that will guarantee her family a three-month “starter kit” containing food, pots and pans, plastic sheeting and other supplies to help them resettle.

“I hope we’ll be able to grow something to eat,” Cezarie said. “I don’t know if my old house will still be there or not.”

It is of course good news that so many refugees now feel that they are able to return to Burundi, but it will be a big challenge for the country to peacefully repatriate the returnees.

So, why aren’t we going to Burundi?

Rema’s work at the moment is with the refugees outside of Burundi. As more people move back home, the work will change too. So maybe next year we’ll be visiting Burundi.

Kirundi word for the day is NI NEZA– which means 'it is good' in answer to 'BITE'/ 'how are you?'.

Africa Lives on the BBC

BBC are doing a whole series of programmes about Africa on radio and TV, I presume prompted by the G8 summit and the emphasis on Africa. I've only seen a snippet of Bob Geldoff on Africa - which was a fascinating show about what makes Africa such a unique contint, worth catching or taping the second part on BBC one, 22 June 05: 7.30pm-8pm. There's even a Question of African Sport scheduled.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/africalives/

What’s Burundi like?

Burundi is the small heart-shaped country in the middle of Africa, between Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo, just below Rwanda. It’s about the same size as Belgium. It is close to the equator, but because of the altitude, most of the year it is around 20oC. There are about 7 million people, they speak Kirundi and French. Life is quite hard if you are Burundian; the average life expectancy is 40 years and only half of the population can read and write. There has been political instability since the president was assassinated in 1993, but there is now a peace process.

Kirundi word for the day is BGAKEYE - Good Morning (the day breaks).

Injections

Haven't posted for a while, should be able to catch up a bit now.
Had the last of my injections yesterday, that's 10 in total, plus malaria tablets, total cost £198. That’s half the airfare! Now on first name terms with the practice nurse, and I need ideas for exotic trips for next year – got to get my money’s worth out of all these jabs.

Kirundi word for the day is BITE – which means HOW ARE THINGS?

UN assisted refugees in Tanzania

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA) reported in 31 Oct 2004 the numbers of refugees in Tanzania along the Burundi border as approx. 250,000 Burundians, plus more from DRC and Rwanda. We will be visiting one of the camps in Kigoma region. We'll also visit a camp in Tabora region, but that hasn't been included in these figures.

BBC NEWS Last rebels make peace in Burundi

Burundi's president and the head of the only rebel group still outside the peace process have reached agreement.....A constitution designed to share power between Hutus and Tutsis was approved in a referendum earlier this year and parliamentary and presidential elections are scheduled for coming months.

CMS News - Desperation of forgotten refugees

"Rema Ministries visit the camps to teach people about issues like HIV/AIDS, trauma counselling and reconciliation. 'We need to prepare them to face the challenges ahead,' Francois says. 'Refugees will meet people who killed their relatives and there has to be a roadmap for forgiveness.' Some refugees will also be killers themselves and there is significant anti-refugee feeling in Burundi itself, according to Alison. 'People want to know, will there be justice?'"

The Team

For the first time yesterday the full team met up together for a planning meeting. From the back left: Phil, Pete,
Arlene, Wendy, Sally, Ruth
Chrissie

African Proverbs, Sayings and Stories

Africa has a lot of stories, sayings and proverbs. some are similar from country to country, some make absolutely no sense at all unless you learn a bit about the society it came from. Such as 'Ahari amahoro umuhoro uramwa.' (Rundi) or in English 'Where there is peace, a billhook (sickle) can be used to shave your beard or cut your hair.' Basically means 'where there is peace, everything is possible.'

The Afriprov.org site is a collection from across the continent, including some from Burundi. They are planning to publish a book of Burundi/ Kirundi proverbs but it's still in development.

African Proverbs, Sayings and Stories

Map of Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi

Kirundi for Tourists, courtesy of Eric.

Kirundi for Tourists1

BBC Country profile: Burundi

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Country profiles | Country profile: Burundi

The Start

The purpose of this blog is to follow preparations and visit to REMA in Kenya and Tanzania.

REMA is a Burundian (Kirundi) word that means to comfort, console, affirm, strenghen. The organisation consists of about 6 Burundians who work with Burundian refugees. There are about 500,000 refugees from Burundi living in Kenya and Tanzania, most are in refugee camps, some are recognised by the UN, some are not.

A team of us will be going out to visit some of the projects and the refugee camps in June and July 2005.

I'll add more information about Burundi, the language, history, the problems, and an idea about what we'll be doing as part of our visit. Hopefully I should be able to do some posts from Kenya and Tanzania.