All articles tagged with #burundi
Thousands of refugees fleeing violence in eastern DR Congo face severe conditions in Burundi, with limited access to essentials and rising health risks, amid ongoing conflict and territorial gains by M23 rebels, prompting urgent aid efforts.
Six people accused of witchcraft were killed by a militia in Burundi, with two burned alive and others beaten or stoned, in an incident linked to the Imbonerakure youth movement, highlighting ongoing issues of mob justice and human rights abuses in the region.
Burundi has closed its borders with Rwanda, accusing its neighbor of funding rebel attacks by the Red Tabara group. Rwandan President Paul Kagame denies the charge, but Burundi's government has labeled him a "bad neighbor." The closure follows a December attack by Red Tabara near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda regrets the unilateral border closure, citing violations of regional cooperation principles. This move adds to the tenuous relations between the two countries, despite their shared language, ethnic composition, and colonial history.
Burundi's President Evariste Ndayishimiye has publicly called for the stoning of gay people, intensifying the persecution of LGBT individuals in the country. During a public Q&A, he suggested that homosexuality, which he views as a Western import, should be punished by death in a stadium setting. This statement reflects a broader trend of growing anti-LGBT sentiment and legislation in the region, with countries like Uganda enacting harsh laws against same-sex relations, prompting international condemnation and sanctions.
Former Burundi Prime Minister Alain Guillaume Bunyoni has been arrested in the capital city of Bujumbura, seven months after his sacking in a high-level political purge. The charges he will be facing are not yet known. Bunyoni was considered the number two in the country’s ruling party and was a close ally of former President Pierre Nkurunziza, who died in office in 2020. He has been under United States sanctions since 2015 over his alleged role in violating human rights during violence sparked by Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term in office.
A new unidentified disease, suspected to be a virus causing nosebleeds and killing infected individuals within 24 hours, has claimed three lives in Burundi, West Africa. The symptoms suggest a viral haemorrhagic fever, but the health minister has ruled out Marburg and Ebola. The outbreak has caused panic in the town, with residents blocking entrances to prevent the spread. The WHO warns of the risk of international spread, as the cases were found in provinces bordering other nations. Zoonotic diseases are becoming more of an issue in Africa, with growing interaction between people and wild animals.
A mysterious nosebleed-causing disease has killed three people in Burundi, with health officials ruling out Ebola and Marburg. Symptoms include abdominal pain, high fever, vomiting, and dizziness. The disease has been reported in the Kirundo and Muyinga provinces, with health experts dispatched to investigate. The Ministry of Health has advised Burundians to wash their hands with clean water and soap, avoid unprotected contact with bodily fluids, and not consume wild animals or touch corpses with unknown causes of death.
Cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus have been detected in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The virus was found in an unvaccinated four-year-old boy in Burundi and six children in the DRC's eastern Tanganyika and South Kivu provinces. The detections are the first linked with the use of a new vaccine, the novel oral poliomyelitis vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), which was developed specifically to reduce this risk. Burundi and the DRC plan to conduct polio vaccination campaigns in the coming weeks for all eligible children aged up to 7 years with help from the WHO and GPEI.
Health officials in Burundi have declared an outbreak of polio linked to the vaccine, the first time the paralytic disease has been detected in the East African country for more than three decades. The virus that sickened the children was found to be a mutated strain of polio that initially came from an oral vaccine. The epidemic is another setback for the global effort to wipe out polio led by the World Health Organization and partners, which first began in 1988 and initially aimed to eradicate the disease in a dozen years.
Health officials in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo have detected cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus, which is different from wild poliovirus and occurs when a weakened strain of poliovirus contained in the oral polio vaccine circulates among under-immunized populations for long periods. The detections are significant as they are the first linked with the use of a new vaccine, the novel oral poliomyelitis vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), which was developed specifically to reduce this risk.