Month of January : Briefing on the issues that matter for Burundians as East Africans
Adding depth and context to Burundi and East Africa stories you heard in January 2020
The Briefing, Issue #27 Friday, January 31, 2020
Dear Readers,
For our last Briefing of January, let us go through major events and key topics my team and I wrote about in our weekday briefings.
January was a Month we approached with huge expectations and inquisitiveness. Through the joyous and sad events we saw in the news, we tried our best to cut through the noise and briefed you on essential news elements. Bear with us, it is our first month doing this, and we are improving each day.
The first days of the year were marked by heavy rains, in Kayanza (North of Burundi) alone, over 430 houses were partially destroyed and around 2000 ha of crops were damaged. Later we learned that heavy rains in November and December 2019 caused over 20,000 people to lose their homes.
Early January, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an advisory for travelers to Burundi that the resistance to chloroquine (one of the drugs used to prevent malaria) is high in Burundi. Travelers were advised to use daily atovaquone-proguanil, daily doxycycline, or weekly mefloquine to prevent malaria. CDC reports a cumulative total of 8,571,897 malaria cases including 3,170 deaths.
Later on, in a Press conference, Rwanda's Foreign Minister and Government Spokesperson Vincent Biruta dismissed allegations that Rwandan forces attacked Burundi, a claim advanced by Burundian officials, Minister Biruta said Rwanda remains open to dialogue with Burundi if the Burundian government wants to talk.
“When will the crisis between Rwanda and Burundi be over? “That was the question of one subscriber, that is a hard question to answer, but I may say that dialogue and diplomatic Channels can resolve this, and the East Africa Community can play an eminent role.
Burundi hosted from January 14 to 20, consultations to draft the Constitution for the East Africa Community (EAC) Political Confederation. Public hearings took place in Ngozi, Gitega, Makamba, and Bujumbura. According to Amb. Libérat Mfumukeko, the EAC Secretary-General, the drafting of the Constitution for the Political Confederation of the EAC is a political process that requires high levels of inclusion and stakeholder participation.
Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, visited Burundi and held talks with Burundi 2nd Vice President, Joseph Butare. “Burundi is grateful to China for supporting its development and speaking up for it on international occasions, Burundi will firmly support China on issues involving China’s core interests and major concerns,” Butore Joseph said.
January was a baffling month for Burundi Media. Radio Isaganiro’s Journalist(Blaise Pascal Kararumiye) was imprisoned for 4 days in Karusi. 4 Iwacu journalists are still in prison, and they have been sentenced to 30 months imprisonment. The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday, January 16, 2020, condemning “the current restrictions on freedom of expression in Burundi, including wider restrictions on public freedoms.” Burundian authorities were asked to drop the charges against the 4 journalists of the Iwacu Press Group and to release them immediately and unconditionally.
In our briefings, we wrote about the sessions of capacity building organized by the National Security Council in all Burundi communes. The security committees in all the communes of Burundi attended the workshops. Capacity building workshops were on early warning and rapid response in matters of human security, preventive intelligence and the fight against rumors during the pre-election period.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, CVR in the french acronym, presented its annual activity report, 2019 edition, to the Parliament. CVR has identified 142,505 victims already and more than 4,000 mass graves have been found in Burundi following an investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into conflicts since independence in 1962. Are Burundians ready to hear the truth about what happened in 1972? That was a question we got from a subscriber, we wrote an opinion piece on this topic.
In politics, we briefed you on “the benefits for Burundi former Presidents”, we examined the context and the elements given in the explanatory memorandum of a new bill voted by the parliament. Meanwhile, Burundi's ruling party, the CNDD-FDD, picked its secretary-general, Evariste Ndayishimiye, as its candidate in a presidential election scheduled for May 2020
We briefed you about the Peacebuilding Commission(PBC) Ambassadorial-level meeting on Burundi that took place on January 27 in New York. The meeting discussed the possibility for the Commission to accompany Burundi on the path to peaceful elections and in the continuation of the economic dialogue with international partners.
We covered in our daily briefings a range of topics that are of interest to Burundi and East Africa because, with the proliferation of information, we believe that the importance of filtering information has never been more important.
We understand that it is exceptionally difficult for business leaders and highly productive Professionals to stay current on all important news. We filter the news, to bring to you concise information about game-changing events and insights.
We compiled all the key briefings of January in One document (PDF), updated with all the developments that occurred after we published the daily briefing, we sell it at $5, if you want to receive of RegionWeek January Briefings a copy click here, we will send it to you.
Thank you very much!
Fabrice Iranzi,
Founding Editor, RegionWeek.com
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RegionWeek is a Burundi-based media for a new generation of achievers in Africa, a platform devoted to chronicling the journey to Freedom and Empowerment.