Burundi: What was waiting the Gitega’s power to take measures to fight against Covid-19?
Today, the Burundian authorities are waking up to take measures to combat Covid-19. President Evariste Ndayishimiye invited everyone to cooperate in putting into practice the measures that will be taken by the Ministry of Public Health. During his press conference, Minister Thaddée Ndikumana announced that tests will be organized for all those who have signs of Covid-19 from Monday, July 6, 2020. Again, this is not enough. The other countries that have already taken the course in the fight against Covi-19 do not test for those who already have symptoms only, they test systematically. Perhaps Burundi has not yet had the means to do so.
The most important is missing. Awareness of Burundians on the dangers of this virus and how to protect themselves. Adequate measures to protect the people have not yet been taken. It seems that even these authorities have not yet sensed the danger of this pandemic. People still meet in churches, schools, markets, parties, nightclubs without any protective measures. Social distancing, regular hand washing, wearing a mask are not yet compulsory in Burundi. Maybe they will get there. But, it may be too late if it is not already. Countries that have taken action late have seen cascading people die, making it difficult for them to bury them.
At the time when the whole world was mobilizing to fight by all means against this pandemic until paralyzing all productive activities, Burundi was in the electoral campaign. However, the coronavirus had already entered the country. And the authorities knew it. At that moment, the presence of cases of contamination was to hide by all possible means. It is in this logic that WHO representatives in Burundi were expelled from the country.
Why this attitude of the military clique on power? What are the consequences? Who are responsible?
Taking late action means to facilitate the spread of the pandemic on a large scale. At the time of the electoral campaign, people could leave several provinces and meet in a single locality, just to show that the candidate is supported by many people. This was already a factor in the spread of covid-19 since it was already in Burundi and no one could know if he was infected because no tests yet done. So, this is why in all 4 corners of Burundi there are people contaminated by covid-19. One might wonder if today when the elections are over, that the power sought at all costs has been conquered, Evariste Ndayishimiye and his clique would be able to test across the country. Do they have enough equipment? As they are now starting to report many cases of contamination, do they have sufficient means of hospitalization and care for a large number of people?
The United States of America has just injected, on July 3, 2020, 530 thousand US dollars via the UNDP. This is equivalent to 6 vehicles, 27 computers, 7 printers, 14 million masks and 03 respirators. Are they sufficient to cover the whole country? How many respirators did they have, for example? Not much in any case because this material is expensive. And the late President Nkurunziza could not die if there was a respirator in Karuzi. It is said that Doctors were obliged to take one respirator from Bujumbura’s hospitals and transported it by helicopter to Karuzi. Unfortunately it was too late.
President Ndayishimiye announced the reduction of soap’s price and free water in some corners. These are aids that the authorities are starting to receive from partners who are pushing them to take these no thoughtful measures, while raising awareness of the population to change their behaviour and barrier measures should be priorities for effectively combating this pandemic. The soap and hand washing water are irrelevant when people continue to meet in public places without any protective measures. They will continue to contaminate themselves.
It is clear that the measures announced by President Ndayishimiye on July 1, 2020 are the result of a certain cooperative approach by certain actors who promised him aid in this sector. Otherwise, the health of its people is not its primary concern. We saw it during the electoral campaign period. Announcing that the OBR had a surplus over the forecasts, he declared that this money will be used to finance the projects of the young people in the communes to fight unemployment. He did not think directly about the fight against this pandemic. He immediately had in mind that this money could help his imbonerakure militia scattered in the municipalities of the country (these are the young unemployed people he was talking about). But, it is just to see at the limit of his nose because they will not be able to make plans if they are suffering from covid19
URN HITAMWONEZA reminds to the Gitega’s military clique that Covid19 is a public danger and continues to spread and cause damage. In Africa, the figures show that more than 400,000 people have been infected and more than 11 thousand already dead (here we are not talking about the cases of countries like Burundi which hide these figures). Worldwide, more than 11 million people are already infected with Covid-19 and more than 350 thousand have died. Failure to take urgent action to save the Burundian people from this pandemic is a crime against humanity and President Evariste Ndayishimiye will have to answer it before appropriate courts sooner or later.