Burundi: Behind the cleanliness of the city of Bujumbura hides the pauperization of the population
He’s been very active in recent days. He is General and Super Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca alias Ndakugarika. He has held many meetings in recent days with administrators and tax collectors, speaking threatening language to them like there was a war breaking out in Burundi. Yes, the war for Ndakugarika has two aspects.
The first aspect concerns the search for money. He said it himself when he declared to the collectors of taxes and levies in the town hall of Bujumbura. “We have to take money from those who have it and not from the little people who don’t.” But, why today is the minister moving heaven and earth to find money by all means? Because the government needs it exceptionally for its operation. He would be short of funds at the moment. He had nurtured the hope that the European Union would resume cooperation as quickly as possible and once again give it direct aid that it used to pay to Burundi before the European sanctions in 2016. The military power of Gitega did everything to ensure that the talks were completed as quickly as possible, but the obstacle was that the conditions required of him were not implemented. President Evariste Ndayishimiye was unable to honour his pledges despite accepting certain conditions imposed by EU. According to reports close to the cnddfdd circle of leaders, President Ndayishimiye was upset by the Bunyoni and Ndakugarika circle who denied him the implementation of everything he had promised to do in front of EU representatives. It is in particular the release of all political prisoners, the insertion in the posts of responsibility of the members of the CNL of Agathon Rwasa, a party declared second after the cnddfdd whereas he had, according to its leader, won these May 2020 elections. The European Union would have noticed that nothing is going on within the cnddfdd system which is in power in Burundi and would have suspended the talks; this was also accentuated by the correspondence of the 43 MEPs who warned that no money should be given to a government that continues to blatantly violate the rights of its citizens. Evariste Ndayishimiye then allegedly asked the Bunyoni-Ndakugarika circle to prepare to take responsibility for the economic crisis that will follow. This is why the Minister of the Interior even meddles in areas which are not under his responsibility to seek money at all costs.
Behind this search for money (second aspect), Minister Ndirakobuca dealt with another file which is still close to his heart. Continue to ruin the Tutsis and political opponents to bring them completely to their knees. This is why shops in Nyakabiga, at the bottom of the Mutanga campus, were wickedly destroyed, under the supervision of the administrator who said he was implementing Minister Ndakugarika’s decision; some shops and containers in Jabe were also closed and the owners were ordered to go to the big markets; small outlets selling food and other basic necessities, small neighbourhood markets in Kanyosha have been forced by the administration to close to join the large market. The administration began to destroy everything to implement the decision of their minister and the population began to shout to such an extent that Minister Ndirakobuca had once again to declare to the media that he was misunderstood, that ‘he spoke only of shops, houses converted into stocks of commercial products that are located near markets. Perhaps the extremist General did not make it clear to them who to hunt, which shops to destroy, and his party members found themselves in this group when they were not targeted. This is why Minister Ndakugarika had to make a new statement.
URN HITAMWONEZA would like to remind Minister Ndirakobuca that it is difficult to get up one day and suddenly change everything the system has set up as a way of running the country. Taxes and duties have been collected in this way since 2005; nothing was done to tidy it up as those who took advantage were members of the cnddfdd. It is not today that the government is under pressure that it can impose new unpopular measures that risk further ruining an already impoverished population that barely finds food twice a day. It was in these shops that you destroyed that people could find bread for their children. The people should once again realize that the leadership which is currently at the head of the country no longer knows which way to go. The crimes they have committed, the continuous violations of human rights of which they are guilty on a daily basis cannot allow them to open up to the outside world and the consequences of this confinement of Burundi fall on the little citizen. The solution to this problem is simple. Find ways to change that leadership and replace it with people who have clean hands, and there are many of them and all stripes. This is how Burundi can gain the confidence of the international community and emerge from this crisis.