Xaverian order says three elderly nuns found murdered in what appears to be a botched armed robbery in capital, Bujumbura Three Italian nuns were found murdered over the weekend in the north of Burundi's capital, officials and a priest in the African state said on Monday. Police said two suspects had been detained for questioning. A statement put out by the nuns' order said "the murders appeared...
A hi-tech device may ultimately cut an elaborate supply chain and create better links between farmers and consumers It was during a lecture about the ubiquitous Nespresso pods, which have sanitised coffee production down to a machine and a cartridge, that Andrew Stordy had his idea. While the multinational brand's website boasts of taking the mess and fuss out of traditional coffee making, he would...
Burundi's children are among the most malnourished in the world, but a project empowering mothers gives hope for a solution Of Burundi's 11 million inhabitants, 90% rely on agriculture, which means a large proportion of the population is affected by acute food insecurity, climate hazards and limited access to land. The resulting malnutrition has been further aggravated by the return and reintegration...
In the poorest country in the world, President Pierre Nkurunziza is intent, say opponents, on hanging on to power and his private stadium It's about midday as four ragged-trousered labourers, hoes on their shoulders, climb a hill in Burundi and spot a foreigner with a camera. "You can't take pictures of that," they warn him, pointing at what looks like a castle rising out of the trees at...
Simbikangwa sentenced to 25 years by French court for his part in 1994 genocide that left 800,000 people dead A French court has sentenced a wheelchair-using former Rwandan soldier to 25 years in prison for his part in the 1994 genocide that left about 800,000 people dead. Pascal Simbikangwa, 54, a former intelligence chief and captain of his country's presidential guard, was convicted of complicity...
Witnesses said gunmen disguised as police forced people to lie on the ground before opening fire, killing at least 36 Gunmen have stormed a bar in Burundi killing at least 36 people, heightening fears of a return to civil war in the deadliest attack in the central African country this year. Witnesses said that the gunmen, some disguised as police, burst into the bar late on Sunday and forced its patrons...
Public spending on education in Africa has been increasing annually according to a new report, but how is the money distributed? Get the data Over the last decade public spending on education in Africa has increased by more than 6% each year, according to a report released on Wednesday by the UN educational, scientific and cultural organisation (Unesco) . "The increase in investments has been...
Violence escalates in Burundi in a climate of constant low-level conflict and political instability The massacre of 41 people in a bar near Bujumbura on 18 September was one of the most deadly incidents in Burundi in recent years, but it took place in a climate of constant low-level violence and political instability. Violent deaths are reported almost daily in the central African country's media yet...
Former child soldiers sidelined and impoverished by the political process are being drawn back to conflict In a dusty field in the Burundian town of Maramvya a young man named Claude watches over the village's goats. A former lieutenant to Hutu chiefs in the aftermath of a civil war that ended in 2005, he still has the strong build of a fighter. But now he wears tattered pants and women's sandals with...
s bastions of democracy, a new bill threatens to impose stiff penalties on journalists for articles deemed harmful by the government. In neighbouring Tanzania , which Barack Obama visited this summer, the government has shut down independent newspapers. And in Burundi , a new law forces journalists to reveal sources or face heavy fines. "The region is on a slide," said Henry Maina, East and Horn of...
s 4,250-mile length, an omission Levison Wood intends to rectify and hopes he can do it in a year. Setting off from dense forest in the highlands of Rwanda on 1 December, Wood, 31, a former parachute regiment captain from Putney, south London, will work his way through up to seven countries – depending which side of the river he takes – some of which have been riven by civil unrest and war. Wood will...
A UNDP project, providing work placements for former soldiers and refugees in Burundi, is providing some interesting lessons for how to help rebuild communities after decades of conflict Around the world, 1.5 billion people live in a place affected by conflict or violence, waiting, often for decades, for something more than a temporary respite from death and destruction. A definite end to conflict,...
s national communication council (CNC) has suspended a newspaper's online forum because it claimed readers' comments had violated legal provisions that preclude "endangering national unity, public order and security, incitement to ethnic hatred, justification of crimes, and insults to the head of state." The ban on the site run by the widely-read independent newspaper Iwacu is in place until 1 July....
Kieran Holmes , head of Burundi's new revenue authority, talks about his strategy for building a transparent institution, fighting corruption and the challenges of working in a post-conflict state Arun Marsh Eliza Anyangwe Andy Gallagher ...
s office is lamented in Bujumbura – and in London In the tiny African nation of Burundi, one of the world's poorest countries, Britain's decision to close its development arm's country office and end bilateral aid has left people smarting, and scratching their heads. The Department for International Development (DfID) no longer has an office in the capital, Bujumbura, a small city where electricity...
s self-sufficiency When Kieran Holmes was appointed to overhaul Burundi's corrupt tax system, he set exams for more than 2,000 job applicants and his team marked the papers in his basement: he was determined the process would be squeaky clean. The 59-year-old Irishman then "smashed every wall in sight" at the tax headquarters in Burundi's capital Bujumbura. He wanted to remove the walls dividing offices...
s six children does not have a name yet, but the 17-day-old girl certainly has attitude as her fists swat the air, her eyes wide and alert. Bukuru, 27, gave birth by caesarean section in the CMCK clinic in Bujumbura, the steamy, hill-ringed, bicycle-filled capital of Burundi, in eastern Africa. She was referred to the clinic as part of an emergency obstetric care programme run by Médecins sans Frontières...
s central "government" controlled little more than a square mile of the capital, Mogadishu, while Islamist militants began to impose strict sharia law on most of the country. Today it is al-Shabaab that has not only been driven out of the capital but looks set to relinquish its last major urban stronghold, the port city of Kismayo. The dramatic turnaround has been achieved by a display of purpose and...
s internet access is. Because of the distances involved, the primary connections, in the main, are undersea cables which can be easily disrupted by a careless anchor. He added: "But it does show there has been progress in African connectivity. Luckily, we've moved on from single cables, so there is at least some redundancy when events like this occur. Losing 20% of East Africa's connectivity is a lot...
s refusal to reconsider its decision as recommended by the committee . Bruce also criticised the government for not allowing the committee to see a proposal from the DfID Burundi office to increase the programme. "The government still has not provided us with a full explanation of why it did not accept the proposal to scale up the Burundi programme to make it viable which was put forward by the DfID...