Burundi

About Burundi
Burundi has suffered from significant violence since being colonized (first by the Germans, then the Belgians) at the beginning of the 20th century. The Belgians also played up distinctions between Hutu and Tutsi in order to “divide and conquer.” Then, with the coming of independence from the Belgians, Prince Louis Rwagasore won elections and was on his way to becoming a Prime Minister supported by both Hutu and Tutsi until Belgium (with the support of the United States) ordered his assassination. No one in his wake was able to create unity, and the country descended into violence between Hutu and Tutsi that continued until recently. Over the last few decades this violence has caused the death of over 300,000 people, left the economy in ruins, and displaced hundreds of thousands.

The recent ceasefire with the last remaining rebel group (the Palipehutu-FNL) has sparked renewed hope for peace, but previous such ceasefires have fallen apart from out of the lack of the ability of communities to integrate former combatants and address the economic, health, and psychological problems that they continue to face while rebuilding their country.

About Kamenge

Kamenge is a district north of the capital city Bujumbura, about six miles from Lake Tanganyika, with an estimated 30,250 inhabitants. Much of the violence that has affected Burundi has been particularly hard on this area. In 1962, the Kamenge Riots rocked the nation as a whole and lead to further violence. Kamenge was also a central battle ground in what Burundians call “the Crisis”, a violent period that started in 1993, during which time many homes and businesses in the area were destroyed. By April 2005, Hutus fleeing violence in other parts of the city had fled to Kamenge, and the army began to encircle Kamenge with the stated aim of capturing Hutu fighters. In a period of two weeks, the 50,000 inhabitants of Kamenge fled to the hills and the army entered Kamenge with armored vehicles.

Kamenge today still bears the scars of that violence, from bullet and mortar holes to abandoned and destroyed houses. More importantly though, the violence exacerbated the poverty of the area, and the area has particularly struggled to rebuild.

The area is home to many refugees, many of them single parent mothers, but also many young children who fled the violence in the countryside and had no where else to go. With the coming of peace, there are also a number of demobilized combatants who are moving to the area. Without support from the community and the opportunity to heal from their trauma, these ex-soldiers will fall again into lives of violence.

To summarize, the interconnected challenges faced by women in Kamenge include:

- HIV/AIDS: The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Kamenge is not known, but the World Bank estimates that Burundi as a whole has an infection rate of 11.2%, and in a preliminary test done by the FWA health clinic, 17% of the people tested were HIV positive.

- the lack of food security (especially as food prices have in some cases doubled over the past year), which exacerbates the difficulty of healing from diseases such HIV/AIDS

- the lack of access to clean drinking water

- lack of local, appropriate health care

- psychosocial trauma from the war

- stigmatization of people living positively with HIV/AIDS

- sexual violence: While there are no official statistics on domestic violence, a recent survey by the Association of Catholic Women Jurists estimated that one out of every three women in Bujumbura is being beaten at home. Its conceivable this number is even higher in Kamenge.

The challenges faced by the people of Kamenge are considerable, yet they are also a proud, resilient and caring people that want urgently to rebuild their lives, to care for each other, and to create a better future.

According to the World Food Program, only 18 percent of Burundi’s population is food secure, and thirty-four percent are extremely food insecure (consuming less than 1,400 kcal per day). They also estimate that 70 percent of family expenditure goes to food, which makes rising prices very difficult to cope with.