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In Burundi, an influx of Congolese individuals continues as they seek refuge from the advancing M23.
In May, Burundi held a presidential election which was won by Evariste Ndayishimiye, candidate of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy - Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party.
Ndayishimiye was hurriedly sworn in after the untimely death of president Pierre Nkurunziza in June.
Rights violations continue
The Council encouraged donor countries which had suspended aid to Burundi to continue dialogue towards resumption of development assistance.
A report by a UN watchdog in September said human rights violations were still being committed in Burundi, including sexual violence and murder.
The country was plunged into a crisis in April 2015 when Ndayishimiye’s predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a controversial third term, which he ultimately won in July 2015.
His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup in May 2015.
Hundreds of people were killed and over 300,000 fled to neighboring countries.
With the authorities barring international observers at the last minute by invoking Covid-19 and a run-up to the polls marred by intensified violence and opposition repression, a serious question mark hangs over the credibility of Burundi's Wednesday elections.
The elections saw Évariste Ndayishimiye standing for the ruling Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie - Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD) and Agathon Rwasa for the main opposition party Congrès national pour la liberté (CNL).
The East African Community was set to deploy a team to Burundi to monitor the presidential, legislative and municipal elections that would in particular determine a successor to the 15-year incumbent, Pierre Nkurunziza, and replace the National Assembly.
Some polling stations opened late in various localities, and authorities expelled or arrested several accredited opposition election observers.
Rwasa has declared he will not allow the ruling party to \"steal his election\" and Nkurunziza that he will not tolerate a call for violence.
...aftermath of a succession war, swallowed the small kingdom of Gissaka, to its east. It failed to defeat Burundi, to the south, but under its mwami, or ruler, Kigeri IV (who reorganized its military forces) it extended its control by raiding to the north.
...were subdued by the mwami (“king”) Ruganzu II Ndori in the 17th century. The borders of the kingdom were rounded out in the late 19th century by Kigeri IV Rwabugiri, who is regarded as Rwanda’s greatest king. By 1900 Rwanda was a unified state with a centralized military structure.
Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza died on Tuesday a lonely man, having alienated himself from regional leaders, save for President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Save for Tanzania, which it shares a border with and depends on for imports, during his five years of isolation from his regional peers, Mr Nkurunziza maintained an open line of communication with Kenya, in what diplomatic chatter described as his “trust on Kenya’s leader’s apolitical stance” during the 2015 conflict.
A week after the failed 2015 coup, it was President Kenyatta who would maintain a direct line of communication with Mr Nkurunziza, conveying to him the thoughts of his regional peers, including asking for a postponement of the 2015 elections, a request the Burundi leader turned down.
After the election and solidifying his grip on power, Mr Nkurunziza’s key allies, including top military officials, ministers and key government officials, would take advantage of Kenya’s embrace, and have unfettered access to the country, including its healthcare.
On Tuesday, President Kenyatta said that the death of President Nkurunziza was a big blow, as it had “robbed East Africa of a leader whose contribution to the integration and progress of the region shall be sorely missed.”
PRIME Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has criticised the annual UN climate change conference (COP), labelling it \"largely a talk shop,\" after the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl.
He spoke in an interview published in the Guardian UK on July 1.
The “extremely dangerous” category 4 storm made landfall in the Windward Islands on July 1, wreaking havoc.
Gonsalves expressed frustration over what he saw as the lack of meaningful action by major greenhouse-gas-emitting countries.
\"You hear a lot of talk, but you don't see much action – like making funds available to small-island developing states and other vulnerable countries.\"
He said the early-season hurricane should raise awareness of the region's vulnerabilities and prompt action on commitments from the Paris accord and other agreements.
Gonsalves pointed to the July 4 UK election campaign as an example of weak political will on climate action.
\"Climate change is not a major part of the campaigns.
\"While some Labour and Green party members mention it, it is not central to the major parties' messages because it is not seen as an election winner.
\"The same situation is occurring in Western Europe and the United States as countries shift to the right. It's a terrible time for small-island developing states and vulnerable countries.\"
SVG, still recovering from a major volcanic eruption in 2021, and neighbouring Grenada have been affected by Hurricane Beryl. After it hit Carriacou, Grenada, officials reported significant devastation.
From his residence in St Vincent on July 1, Gonsalves described the catastrophic impact of the storm, which ripped off roofs, including that of the 204-year-old St George’s Anglican Cathedral in Kingstown, the capital.
\"We have no electricity and as I speak, the rain is pounding on the official prime minister’s residence and the winds are howling.
\"It's going to get much worse.
\"The coming hours are going to be horrendous.\"
The hurricane's torrential rain and gale-force winds downed power lines, damaged vehicles and forced thousands into shelters.
Videos posted on social media showed aluminium roofing sheets flying through the air.
Gonsalves said on Union Island, 90 per cent of homes lost their roofs or were severely damaged.
The US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned Beryl posed a \"life-threatening\" danger.
The hurricane rapidly intensified from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours, a rare event in Atlantic hurricane history.
By the morning of June 30, countries across the eastern Caribbean, including SVG, Barbados, Grenada and St Lucia, were on hurricane watch. By the end of the day, some islands had declared a state of emergency, imposing curfews and movement restrictions.
The hurricane also disrupted flights and postponed major events, including the St Vincent Carnival and the Caricom leaders’ summit scheduled for this week in Grenada.
Scientists attribute the increased intensity and destructiveness of tropical storms to hu
Johannesburg — At least 22 countries in Africa will be organizing polls this year, 13 of which will be for the positions of president or prime minister.
So why are these countries not being advised to postpone elections?
However, WHO says it is not discouraging elections but is advising that any gathering of people needs to be carried out with physical barriers and distancing among the people involved.
Handling the COVID-19 outbreak also brought some trouble for Tanzania's President John Magufuli, who is facing his first election since being chosen as the country's leader 5 years ago.
Magufuli is being described a tyrant by the opposition, who say information is being controlled and that the alleged withholding the true number of people with the novel coronavirus is an election tactic by the president.
Swahili language, member of the Bantu group of African languages (see African languages and Bantu languages ). Swahili is spoken by 30 million people, chiefly in Tanzania, Kenya, Congo (Kinshasa), Burundi, and Uganda, and serves as a lingua franca for additional millions in E Africa, including Europeans, Arabs, and Indians as well as Africans. It is also now the official language of Kenya and Tanzania and has the largest number of speakers of the Bantu group of languages. Although grammatically a Bantu tongue, Swahili has been greatly influenced by Arabic, from which it has borrowed many words. It is the vehicle of a noteworthy literature that goes back to the beginning of the 18th cent. and is written in a form of the Arabic alphabet. In the second half of the 19th cent., missionaries introduced the Roman alphabet for recording Swahili. Since then writing has flourished, and some native authors of distinction have appeared.
See E. C. Polomé, Swahili Language Handbook (1967) E. N. Myachina, The Swahili Language (1981).
[East African] Burundi on Monday said it would reopen its Kobero-Kabanga and Mugina borders with Tanzania, which were closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Burundi's government has announced the sudden death of President Pierre Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader who took office following a bloody civil war in 2005.
Nkurunziza initially served as the minister of good governance in a transitional administration before taking Burundi's highest post in August 2005 after legislators elected him president.
Things took a turn for the worse in April 2015 when Nkurunziza's controversial decision to seek a third term in office plunged the country into widespread violence that left hundreds of people dead.
In 2017, Nkurunziza formally withdrew Burundi from the International Criminal Court (ICC) - the first country to do so - amid accusations the court was focusing too much on the continent.
READ HERE | We can’t allow Covid-19 to derail efforts to unite, develop continent - Ramaphosa marks Africa Day
A 2018 referendum cleared the way for Nkurunziza to potentially stay in power until 2034, but the president later surprised observers by deciding not to run in this year's election and back Ndayishimiye, the candidate of the governing CNDD-FDD party.
Burundi's longtime President Pierre Nkurunziza has congratulated the governing party's hand-picked successor on a \"large victory\" in the country's presidential election, though the main opposition has pledged to contest the result in court.
The election commission on Monday declared Evariste Ndayishimiye, a former army general chosen by the CNDD-FDD party as heir to Nkurunziza, the winner of the May 20 poll with 68.72 percent vote.
\"I warmly congratulate the President-elect General Major Evariste Ndayishimiye for his large victory which confirms that the great majority of Burundians adhere to the projects and the values he embodies,\" Nkurunziza, who chose not to run after 15 years in power, posted on Twitter.
On May 8, 12 days to the polls and before the scheduled arrival of an East African Community mission to the country, the government said the regional bloc's observers would have to be in quarantine for 14 days, effectively ruling them out of the election process.
Nkurunziza was this year elevated by Burundi's parliament to the rank of \"supreme guide for patriotism\" and he will continue to be chairman of the governing party's powerful council of elders.
Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza died on Tuesday a lonely man, having alienated himself from regional leaders, save for President Uhuru Kenyatta.
On the morning of Wednesday May 13, 2015, Mr Nkurunziza was in Dar es Salaam with fellow East African heads of state, including Tanzania's Jakaya Kikwete, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni.
Save for Tanzania, which it shares a border with and depends on for imports, during his five years of isolation from his regional peers, Mr Nkurunziza maintained an open line of communication with Kenya, in what diplomatic chatter described as his \"trust on Kenya's leader's apolitical stance\" during the 2015 conflict.
On Tuesday, President Kenyatta said that the death of President Nkurunziza was a big blow, as it had \"robbed East Africa of a leader whose contribution to the integration and progress of the region shall be sorely missed.\"
U.S. Department of State Background Note
At 206.1 persons per sq. km., Burundi has the second-largest population density in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most people live on farms near areas of fertile volcanic soil. The population is made up of three major ethnic groups--Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. Kirundi is the most widely spoken language; French and Kiswahili also are widely spoken. Intermarriage takes place frequently between the Hutus and Tutsis. Although Hutus encompass the majority of the population, historically Tutsis have been politically and economically dominant.
In the 16th century, Burundi was a kingdom characterized by a hierarchical political authority and tributary economic exchange. A king (mwani) headed a princely aristocracy (ganwa) that owned most of the land and required a tribute, or tax, from local farmers and herders. In the mid-18th century, this Tutsi royalty consolidated authority over land, production, and distribution with the development of the ubugabire--a patron-client relationship in which the populace received royal protection in exchange for tribute and land tenure.
Although European explorers and missionaries made brief visits to the area as early as 1856, it was not until 1899 that Burundi came under German East African administration. In 1916 Belgian troops occupied the area. In 1923, the League of Nations mandated to Belgium the territory of Ruanda-Urundi, encompassing modern-day Rwanda and Burundi. The Belgians administered the territory through indirect rule, building on the Tutsi-dominated aristocratic hierarchy. Following World War II, Ruanda-Urundi became a United Nations Trust Territory under Belgian administrative authority. After 1948, Belgium permitted the emergence of competing political parties. Two political parties emerged: the Union for National Progress (UPRONA), a multi-ethnic party led by Tutsi Prince Louis Rwagasore and the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) supported by Belgium. In 1961, Prince Rwagasore was assassinated following an UPRONA victory in legislative
A cloud of anxiety hangs over Burundi as the electoral agency continued counting votes days after Wednesday’s election that is guaranteed to end the 15-year rule of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
The main opposition party, National Congress for Liberty (CNL), in a tweet claimed that vote rigging was ongoing, as the country awaited provisional results expected to be announced by the Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) on May 25 or May 27.
Burundi five years ago descended into violence after President Nkurunziza, who ascended to power in 2005, announced he would vie for a third term in office.
He decided to end his rule in this year’s election and threw his weight behind an ally, Evariste Ndayishimiye, who is a former Minister of Interior and Public Security and currently runs the department of military affairs in the president’s office.
“These elections will go down in history as I am the only president who completed 15 years while in office,” said the president in Bujumbura.
[Capital FM] Nairobi -- Amnesty International has renewed pressure on the Burundian Government to release an activist jailed for 32 years.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has suspended two provincial governors as part of an ongoing purge targeting public servants deemed to be lacking accountability.
Southern Province Governor Brigadier General Emmanuel Gasana and his Northern Province counterpart Gatabazi Jean Marie Vianney have been pushed out pending investigations into their performance.
“The President has suspended from duty Mr Gasana Emmanuel, Governor of Southern Province and Mr Gatabazi Jean Marie Vianney, Governor of Northern Province owing to matters of accountability under investigation,” a Monday statement by the Prime Minister said.
During a tour of the province early this year, President Kagame warned that local leaders will be held accountable should they not deliver services.
Lawmakers have welcomed the move by President Kagame to hold “the big fish” accountable, and are calling for thorough investigations of those who suspended and the findings made public.
This week’s episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier opens in the past, six years ago to be exact. A one-armed Bucky, then going by his African name White Wolf, sits around a fire in a Wakandan forest, and that alone tells us we’re in for some treats.
