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A Woman turns her husband into a Snake in other not to go out to meet other women except only her…

According to news

She went to meet a witch doctor to do charms for her to cage her husband inside and the witch doctor gave her a substance that later turned her Husband into a big Snake All efforts to get across to the witch doctor prove futile, no luck…The Husband has remained a Snake.

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The former president of Burundi Pierre Buyoya has died in Paris at the age of 71.

The ex-president died of illness worsened by suspected Covid-19 infections, several close relatives told AFP on Friday.

“President Pierre Buyoya died last night in Paris. He had Covid-19,” a member of his family told AFP, requesting anonymity.

Several other relatives confirmed the death of Buyoya, who served as special envoy of the African Union to Mali and the Sahel from 2012 until November this year.

Buyoya “had been hospitalised Wednesday last week in Bamako where he was placed on a respirator,” the family member said.

“He was evacuated to Paris yesterday afternoon. His plane made a stopover and arrived in France in the evening. He died as the ambulance took him to hospital in Paris for treatment,” the source said.

Buyoya resigned as AU envoy in late November after being sentenced to life imprisonment in Burundi the month prior over the 1993 assassination of his successor, which he denounced as politically motivated.

Buyoya, an ethnic Tutsi, first came to power in Burundi, one of the smallest countries in Africa, in a coup in 1987.x

He stepped down in 1993 in the country’s first democratic elections in which Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, resoundingly beat him.

But hardline ethnic Tutsi soldiers killed Ndadaye just four months into the job.

His murder plunged Burundi into years of civil war between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis.

Buyoya became president again after a coup, ruling from 1996 to 2003.

In 2000, he signed the Arusha Accords, an agreement aimed at ending the civil war which left an estimated 300,000 people dead between 1993 and 2006. He stepped down in 2003 in line with the accords.

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NAIROBI (9News Nigeria) – Burundi’s outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza has died, the government of the central African nation announced in a statement posted on Twitter.

“The government of the Republic of Burundi announced with great sadness … the unexpected death of his Excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, President of Burundi,” the government said in a tweeted statement, adding he had died of a heart attack.

Last month Burundi elected a new leader, retired general Evariste Ndayishimiye, who was flagbearer for the ruling CNDD-FDD party.

Nkurunziza, who has faced accusations of political repression at home and abroad since coming to power in 2005, was due to stay in office until August, when Ndayishimiye was supposed to take over and start a seven-year term.

Reporting by Nairobi newsroom; Editing by Elias Biryabarema and Alex Richardson

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NAIROBI (9News Nigeria) – Burundi’s ruling party candidate won a presidential election held last week, securing 68.72% of the vote, the electoral commission said on Monday.

Evariste Ndayishimiye, a retired general, will take over from President Pierre Nkurunziza, after he beat the main opposition candidate Agathon Rwasa, and five others, avoiding a runoff by securing more than 50% of the vote.

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The people of Burundi will go to the ballot in May 2020 to elect their new leader when the current President Pierre Nkurunzinza’s term officially comes to an end.

That is if the president keeps his word not to vie again in spite of a referendum in 2018 that changed the constitutional limitations of age limits.

Many saw this as part of president Nkurunzinza’s manoeuvres to allow stay in office as he considers himself to still be young, at only 54 years of age.

The impression created by president’s repeated comments that he will not stand in the upcoming elections has led to two strong factions emerging in his ruling party dividing the country right in the middle.

Burundi’s leaders maintain that the country is stable and the streets of the capital, Bujumbura, are bustling with daily life but behind that façade, some residents say that people are living in dread from the ruling party politics.

The decision by the president not to contest in the eyes of the church puts the people of Burundi in the most awkward of the positions. The main contest in the upcoming elections is not between the opposition and those in the ruling party but the factions within the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy.

The young politicians in the ruling party Silas Ntigurigwa and Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, both of them a General in the military are said to have huge sums of money and are going around the country campaigning with no clear signs of who is going to win and how the losers will take it up.

These politicians are highly opinionated, cannot be told off and have reinforced hardline positions amongst the electorate.

Political pundits within Burundi, however, say that the ruling party has already started campaigning for Nkurunziza and the divisions portrayed by the young politicians serving under the current regime is designed to create a reason for President Pierre Nkurunzinza to continue in power until 2034.

The main issue that has come up is that the ruling party stands a big chance of extending the current leadership but the sticking issue is how those in power will handle the transition. This was complicated when the vote to decide whether President Pierre could continue in office returned a Yes vote in 2018.

Although Nkurunziza has said he won’t run in next year’s election not many people in Burundi believe him, especially after a national referendum last year that approved changing the constitution to extend presidential term limits.

Critics accused the government of intimidating people into voting “yes” and harassing those returning to the country for allegedly supporting the opposition parties because he has vested interest in the presidency.

The feeling on the ground is that the Government of President Nkurunzinza has not done anything significant to open up the political space and many fear that the 2020 elections will take place in a climate of political intimidation and violence not just between the ruling party and the opposition but within the ruling party along the key political figures.

Across the country, supporters of the ruling party and the opposition parties view each other with hostility. Tensions are running particularly high in the provinces of Ngozi, Muyinga and Kirundo in northern Burundi and Makamba in the south.

The political divide as in many other African countries has unfortunately taken ethnic and tribal fault-lines dividing Burundians amongst the Hutu and Tutsi and Twa ethnicities. The locals say they may be brothers but at the same time, they are rivals. Big rivals indeed when it comes to political power and ethnicities.

The results are that two centres of power cannot be in one house, the same party, leave alone the same nation.

“While you cannot touch my brother when I am here as we will obviously gang up against you the enemy, when it comes to power, position and influence, the rivalry between brothers somehow plays out much strongly here in Burundi than you can imagine,” observes one of the church leaders in Matana.
One of the pastors in the capital Bujumbura is now saving to be able to evacuate his family for a while because of the uncertainties over the upcoming elections.

The church in Burundi has started developing peace champions in the communities to be able to deal with the divisive issues emerging amongst people.

It has come up with a peace declaration that all those seeking elective positions have to sign ahead of the elections. Even the members of the community will have to sign the peace declaration which is binding to ensure peace before, during and after elections

While the Minister for foreign affairs Ezechiel Nibigira declared at the UN Assembly on the last day of September that there is an increasingly favourable climate for free, transparent and calm election evidence on the ground is contrary and the world should keep an eye on the current regime to ensure it upholds human rights and conducts a free and fair elections come May 20, 2020.

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Three civil rights activists in Burundi accused of undermining security have been sentenced in their absence to 10 years in prison, judicial sources said on Friday.

Emmanuel Nshimirimana, Aime Constant Gatore and Marius Nizigiyimana, members of the campaign group Parcem, had been planning a human rights workshop, according to fellow activists.

“Our friends have not yet been officially notified but it is unfortunately confirmed,” Faustin Ndikumana, the head of Parcem told AFP.

The sentence was confirmed by judicial sources.

They were arrested in June last year in possession of documents about the rights workshop, which the court said included comments from opposition activists but not government officials, Ndikumana claimed.

Judges at the court in Muramvya, in central Burundi, announced the verdict without representation from the defendants’ lawyers, an activist who asked not to be named told AFP.

The prosecutor had requested between 20 and 25 years imprisonment for the trio who were accused of having “prepared actions likely to disrupt security”.

“This is the first time in history that members of a civil society group in Burundi have been sentenced in this way, a sign that power no longer tolerates civil society in our country,” Gabriel Rufyiri, a well-known activist in the country, said.

Burundi has been facing a serious political crisis since President Pierre Nkurunziza in April 2015 sought a fiercely contested third term in office.

The violence has claimed at least 1 200 lives and displaced more than 400 000 people between April 2015 and May 2017, according to estimates by the International Criminal Court, which has opened an investigation.

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By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Pop icon Beyonce is throwing her superstar power behind a new effort to bring safe, clean water to children in Burundi in a partnership with UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s agency said on Friday.

Plans call for the project, BEYGOOD4BURUNDI, to help build wells and improve hygiene education and water and sanitation facilities in schools, UNICEF and the U.S. star said in online statements.

Two in five people in Burundi in East Africa have no access to clean water, and water- and sanitation-related diseases are among the leading causes of death among children in the nation of 12 million people, they said.

One in 12 children in Burundi dies before age 5, according to UNICEF.

“Access to water is a fundamental right. When you give children clean and safe water, you don’t just give them life, you give them health, an education, and a brighter future,” Beyonce, 35, said in the statement.

Beyonce, 35, said more than two million people in Burundi spend more than 30 minutes a day collecting water, forcing children to miss school and putting girls in particular danger as they walk miles in search of wells.

One of the most popular singers in the world, Beyonce has sold more than 100 million records as a solo artist. She has three children, including twins born earlier this month, with her husband, rap star and entrepreneur Jay Z.

“This unique partnership combines UNICEF’s decades of expertise in providing clean water to children in Burundi and around the world with the power and influence of the entertainment world to bring about social change,” said Caryl Stern, chief executive of UNICEF USA, in a statement.

Asked how much money the entertainer and UNICEF were putting toward the water project, neither the agency nor a representative for Beyonce responded immediately to requests for information.

The first phase of BEYGOOD4BURUNDI focuses on four rural regions of the landlocked East African nation that has been racked by civil unrest and violence as well as drought and malnutrition.

It was plunged into crisis in April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he planned to run for a third term, which the opposition said was unconstitutional and violated a peace deal that had ended the country’s civil war 10 years earlier.

Nkurunziza was re-elected, but some opponents took up arms. At least 700 people have been killed, and rights groups estimate more than 400,000 people have been forced from their homes.

(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org)

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Fuel shortages have paralysed the small central African nation of Burundi, threatening further damage to an economy already moribund after years of political violence and raising questions about the role of the country’s only oil importer.

The problem has damaged two big foreign investors, Kenya’s KenolKobil and South Africa’s Engen, a subsidiary of Malaysian parastatal Petronas.

The shortages, which forced the government to introduce rationing on May 16, have paralysed commerce and caused food prices to jump by around a third, raising the prospect of a wave of economic migration. More than 400,000 people have already fled Burundi into the volatile central African region.

Anti-corruption campaigners said the fuel shortages became severe after Burundian company Interpetrol Trading Ltd. received the lions’ share of dollars that are allocated by the central bank to import fuel.

“The oil sector is undermined by favouritism and lack of transparency, because the rare hard currency available in the central bank reserves is given to one oil importer,” said Gabriel Rufyiri, head of anti-graft organisation OLUCOME.

The central bank declined to answer Reuters’ questions.

Interpetrol’s lawyer, Sylvestre Banzubaze, said: “I am not associated with the day-to-day operations and only intervene on legal questions. You should address your questions directly to Interpetrol sources.”

He did not respond when asked for further contacts and the company does not have a website.

Rufyiri said that government sources told him that the bulk of dollars for fuel purchasing had been allocated to Interpetrol since March this year.

Sources confirmed that Interpetrol received the bulk of dollar allocations. Other companies only received a small fraction of the dollars they needed, the sources said, severely damaging their businesses.

Earlier this month, South African petrol company Engen confirmed it had sold its assets in Burundi to Interpetrol.

Engen declined to comment further. KenolKobil also declined to comment, but Burundian citizens say most of their petrol stations have been closed for three months.

SOLE IMPORTER

Interpetrol is now the sole oil importer and runs all the fuel storage tanks in the country, said an industry source.

Banzubaze said there was “no link” between Interpetrol’s shareholders and any member of the government.

But a 2011 U.S. State Department report described attempts by senior government officials to pressurise judges into dropping a corruption case against the company, owned by brothers Munir and Tariq Bashir. Neither the government nor Interpetrol’s lawyer responded when asked about the status of the case.

Government officials blame dollar shortages on aid cuts that donors imposed after President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a third term in 2015, triggering a wave of political violence.

“These days, fuel importers don’t get enough dollars to bring petroleum products,” said Daniel Mpitabakana, the government’s director of fuel management.

Burundi’s economy shrank by 0.5 percent last year, and the International Monetary Fund expects no growth at all this year and 0.1 percent next year.

Black market prices for fuel range between 5,000 to 6,000 Burundi francs per litre, vendors said, double the official price of 2,200 francs.

The street exchange rate is 2,600 francs to the dollar, although it is just over 1,700 to the dollar at the central bank. Only the central bank can receive dollar deposits and allocate dollars to businesses.

In the capital, queues at empty petrol stations snaked around the block. One civil servant said he had taken the last three days off work to search for gas.

“I have no fuel for days and I don’t know if by chance will get it today,” he said, asking not to be named.

Burundi has also been battered by drought and almost two years of political instability. Hundreds of people were killed and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee abroad during the political violence, which still sometimes erupts in low-level clashes.

Almost 3 million of Burundi’s 11 million citizens are dependent on food aid, the U.N. says.

Source – Reuters

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An unidentified man threw a grenade into a house in Burundi’s capital late on Wednesday, killing three people believed to be members of the ruling party’s youth wing.

At least 700 people have been killed in violent clashes between supporters and opponents of President Pierre Nkurunziza since April 2015 when he said he would run for a third term in office. He was re-elected in July 2015 in a vote largely boycotted by the opposition.

“(Wednesday’s) attack claimed the lives of three young men. Three others were injured, including a woman, her kid and a man, and they were rushed to hospital,” police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye told reporters on Thursday.

“All the deceased persons are reportedly members of the CNDD FDD party youth wing, including a leader at the local level. Five suspects have been arrested, including a Rwandan citizen.”

A resident of the Musaga neighbourhood in Bujumbura where the attack happened and who only wished to be identified as Ancile said those killed included the son of a local leader.

Burundi was plunged into crisis when Nkurunziza said he planned to run for a third term, which the opposition said was unconstitutional and violated a peace deal that had ended the country’s civil war in 2005.

Nkurunziza was re-elected, but some of his opponents took up arms against him. Rights groups say an estimated 400,000 people have sought refuge from the violence in neighbouring countries.

Government officials and members of the opposition have been among those killed in tit-for-tat violence by rival sides.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights last month expressed hi concern about the activities of the youth wing of the ruling CNDD-FDD party, known as Imbonerakure, including night raids on opposition homes, and has asked authorities to end their impunity.

Source – Reuters

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NAIROBI (Reuters) – The United Nations has called on political parties in Burundi to commit fully to peace talks to resolve a two-year old political crisis in the east African nation.

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government said earlier this month it would not attend the talks led by the East African Community (EAC) aimed at ending the crisis sparked by his decision to run for a third term in office.

“I urge all Burundian stakeholders to place their country’s interests above their own and to commit in good faith and without preconditions to a truly inclusive and credible EAC-led dialogue,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.

The government, which has repeatedly accused the U.N. of bias, said it objected to the presence of senior U.N. adviser Benomar Jamal at the talks, which are being held in neighbouring Tanzania.

The main opposition grouping CNARED said it would attend the talks, which are being mediated by Benjamin Mkapa, a former president of Tanzania.

In the report, Guterres said the U.N. would keep supporting the efforts to peacefully resolve the impasse, in order to secure stability in the region.

“The fact that the crisis in Burundi has not escalated into a full-blown armed conflict so far is not an indicator that the worst has been averted,” he said.

Source – Reuters

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NAIROBI (Reuters) – A gunman killed Burundi’s environment minister early on Sunday, police said, the first murder of a senior government figure in nearly two years of political violence.

Emmanuel Niyonkuru, 54, was attacked as he travelled home in the central African nation’s capital Bujumbura, police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye said in a tweet.

Violent protests erupted early in 2015 after President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would seek a third term – a move opponents said violated the constitution and a peace deal that ended an ethnically charged civil war.

At least 450 people have died in clashes between protesters and security forces, tit-for-tat killings and a failed coup, stoking fears of wider unrest in a region still haunted by the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.

“The minister of water and environment was shot … as he was getting home,” police spokesman Nkurikiye said. A woman with the minister had been arrested for questioning, he added.

President Nkurunziza said on Twitter the minister had been assassinated and offered condolences “to the family and all Burundians”.

Nkurunziza went on to win re-election in July 2015 in a poll largely boycotted by the opposition.

(Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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A gunman killed Burundi’s environment minister early on Sunday, police said, the first murder of a senior government figure in nearly two years of political violence.

Emmanuel Niyonkuru, 54, was attacked as he travelled home in the central African nation’s capital Bujumbura, police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye said in a tweet.

Violent protests erupted early in 2015 after President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would seek a third term – a move opponents said violated the constitution and a peace deal that ended an ethnically charged civil war.

At least 450 people have died in clashes between protesters and security forces, tit-for-tat killings and a failed coup, stoking fears of wider unrest in a region still haunted by the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.

“The minister of water and environment was shot … as he was getting home,” police spokesman Nkurikiye said. A woman with the minister had been arrested for questioning, he added.

President Nkurunziza said on Twitter the minister had been assassinated and offered condolences “to the family and all Burundians”.

Nkurunziza went on to win re-election in July 2015 in a poll largely boycotted by the opposition.

Source: Reuters 

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NAIROBI (Reuters) – A senior aide to Burundi’s president Pierre Nkurunziza was injured in an attack on Monday night that also killed one of his bodyguards, officials said.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) says at least 450 people have been killed in the central African nation since Nkurunziza’s announcement early last year that he planned to seek a third term triggered a surge in violence.

Monday’s assassination attempt on Willy Nyamitwe, a senior communications officer for Nkurunziza, occurred in the Kajaga suburb of the capital Bujumbura, according to a security official who requested anonymity.

“Nyamitwe was slightly wounded on his arm during the attack. He is receiving treatment,” the official told Reuters, adding that the incident took place near Nyamitwe’s home at about 7:30 p.m. (1630 GMT).

“One of his bodyguards died on the spot, while another was seriously injured,” the source said.

Nkurunziza was re-elected in July 2015 in a poll largely boycotted by the opposition, which says his extended presidency violates the constitution and the terms of a deal that ended a previous rebellion. Some opponents have taken up arms against his government.

On his Twitter account, Foreign Minister Alain Aimé Nyamitwe said the aide, who is also his brother, had “survived another assassination attempt”.

The instability has raised ethnic tensions in Burundi, whose Hutu-Tutsi ethnic mix is similar to that of neighbouring Rwanda, which suffered a genocide in 1994.

(Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Aaron Maasho and Catherine Evans)

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Burundi’s Justice Minister Aimée Laurentine Kanyana notified the United Nations on Thursday of the country’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, which will take effect one year from Oct. 27, Burundi’s U.N. Ambassador Albert Shingiro said.

Shingiro posted a photo on Twitter of Kanyana handing the withdrawal document to Edmond Mulet, chief of staff for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Burundi becomes the second country to quit The Hague-based court after South Africa submitted its withdrawal, to take effect one year from Oct. 19.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

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NAIROBI (Reuters) – Burundi’s parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, a move no other country has taken despite bitter complaints from Africa that the court disproportionately targets the continent.

Only two lawmakers voted in favour of staying under the jurisdiction of the Dutch-based ICC, while 94 voted against and 14 abstained.

Pro-government lawmaker Gabriel Ntisezerana said the court was “a political tool used by powers to remove whoever they want from power on the African continent.”

Earlier this year, the ICC opened a preliminary investigation into Burundi, focusing on killings, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as enforced disappearances.

Burundi’s government was infuriated last month by a U.N. report that named officials accused of orchestrating the torture and killing of political opponents.

Since then, Burundi has banned three U.N. investigators from its territory and condemned a U.N. decision to set up a commission of inquiry to probe the violence, which began last year after President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to seek a third term in office.

Opponents said his candidacy violated the constitution and a peace agreement that ended a civil war in 2005. The opposition mostly boycotted the polls and Nkurunziza won a third term.

The ICC said in April that political violence had killed around 450 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.

The bill to remove Burundi from the court’s jurisdiction will proceed to the upper house of the legislature and then be signed by the president, triggering a withdrawal process that will last a year.

Opposition lawmaker Fabien Baciryanino favoured staying under ICC jurisdiction, saying to withdraw was “no more, no less, than inciting the Burundian people to commit more crimes”.

Since it was set up under the 1998 Rome Statute, the court based in The Hague has focused on prosecuting such politically-motivated crimes as genocide and crimes against humanity.

Most of its investigations and indictments have been of Africans, stirring criticism from many governments on the continent.

Fadi El Abdallah, spokesman for the court, said the ICC could not comment on Burundi’s vote because it had not yet been formally notified.

“There is a possibility for countries to withdraw, but it only takes effect one year after being submitted to the UNSG,” he said, referring to the United Nations Secretary-General.

“Withdrawal does not effect the past obligation of a country to cooperate with any ongoing proceedings or investigation.”

(Additional reporting by Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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BUJUMBURA (Reuters) – Burundi said it would refuse to allow United Nations police onto its territory to monitor the security and human rights situation after the U.N. Security Council voted to send 228 officers.

More than 450 people have been killed since President Pierre Nkurunziza won a third term last year, a move his opponents say violated the constitution and a peace deal that ended a civil war in 2005. Government and opposition officials were among those killed in tit-for-tat violence by rival sides.

About a quarter of a million people have fled the violence, which has alarmed neighbouring countries in a region where memories of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide remain raw. Like Rwanda, Burundi has an ethnic Hutu majority and a Tutsi minority.

The Security Council voted on Friday to authorise the police deployment, though four of the 15 members abstained.

“Concerning the deployment of the police force, the government of Burundi reminds the Security Council that … every resolution … has to be approved by the host country, which was not, unfortunately, the case,” government spokesman Phillipe Nzobonariba said in a statement late on Tuesday.

“The government … rejects any resolution measure in connection with sending any force on its territory in violation of elementary rules governing the family of United Nations and especially violating the sovereignty of its territory.”

Burundi’s U.N. Ambassador Albert Shingiro said in July his country would only accept up to 50 unarmed U.N. police.

The United Nations needs approval from Burundi’s government to send the police.

(Reporting by Clement Manirabarusha; Additional reporting by Patrick Nduwimana in Kigali; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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