Tag: President Nkurunziza

Burundi happens to be the birthplace of my hero, Prince Louis Rwagasore. Burundians are not drawn to spinning or showcasing their country, so little is known outside of the biases and prejudices of archived material or contemporary writers, largely Anglophones.

Since March, Western press and policymakers have warned of a genocide in Burundi and suggested that Burundi’s minority Tutsi population is in danger. Supporters of President Pierre Nkurunziza say that the key social divide in Burundi is not Hutu and Tutsi, but urban and rural. KPFA’s Ann Garrison spoke to William Ndizeye, a Burundian Canadian supporter of the Burundian government.

Burundian insurgents attacked three army bases early Friday morning. Fighting continued through the night and the dead in Burundi’s streets were estimated to be as high as 89 this morning. The government and opposition told conflicting stories about who the dead were and how they died. Two days before the latest attacks, a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee held a hearing on the situation in Burundi. KPFA’s Ann Garrison has this report.

Which presidents will remain in power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighbors, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the Republic of the Congo? In Burundi, Rwanda’s neighbor and another of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s neighbors to the east, President Nkurunziza claimed the right to be elected twice by universal suffrage and won the election, as Rwanda’s President Kagame did in 2010 and DR Congo’s President Kabila did in 2011, and that right was confirmed by Burundi’s highest court.

There is no doubt that the U.S.-led unipolar global order is facing stiff competition from the East. The BRICS block, especially Russian and China, so far presents to the U.S. the most difficult challenge since the U.S. rise to global supremacy. Deep down in the center of sub-Saharan Africa, Burundi is the Middle East’s Syria. Burundi’s pre- and post-election political maneuvers, violence and attempted coups are a result of this bipolar fight for global supremacy.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power is on a mission to save Africans from African savagery. She wants you to call 1-800-GENOCIDE so she can send in the Marines or other U.S. Special Forces. Her entire career is based on a historically inaccurate, decontextualized and grossly oversimplified account of the 1994 Rwandan massacres, during which the U.S. stood by.

The Burundian army has been engaged by troops near its northern border with Rwanda and this week Aljazeera reported that young men in Rwandan refugee camps are being recruited to join a rebel force to fight in Burundi. Burundian Foreign Minister Alain Nyamitwe, speaking to The Voice of America, said that the Burundian government had asked the Rwandan government to prevent any action threatening Burundi’s security.