Burundi: Business continues to die off as crisis refuses to abate
Burundian refugees wait to be registered in Kigali earlier this year. (File)
In what sounded like an SOS call (Save Our Souls), leading local investor Denis Karera said, “Business is dead, members of Burundi private sector are desperate, do something.”
Karera, the Chairperson of the East African Business Council (EABC), made the appeal on Wednesday, last week, during a dinner hosted by the Rwanda Private Sector Federation (PSF) for members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).
It was the perfect moment; in the room was the East African Community Secretary General Amb. Richard Sezibera, who was recently allegedly received with hostility while on official duties in Burundi.
Also Dan Kidega, the Speaker of the regional legislative body, Francois Kanimba, the Minister of Trade and Industry, and Amb. Valentine Rugwabiza, the Minister for EAC affairs, were present. There were also EALA members from Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi.
Karera revealed that his office is being swarmed by hundreds of calls and letters from Burundi private sector petitioning the regional business council to put pressure on the governments of EAC partner states to arrest the political standoff that has rocked Burundi since March this year.
“We can’t stand and look on as business crumbles, we must act, now,” Karera said.
Inside Burundi
An aerial view of the Burundian Capital Bujumbura sharply came into focus as a regional aircraft arriving from Nairobi bound for Kigali, hovered in the skies over the country’s airport as it awaited clearance to land; it was 6pm East African time on Tuesday, this week.
About three thousand feet in the skies, the sun was setting, giving way to a veil of darkness to usher in the night and wind down yet another troubled day for the ‘sick man’ of East Africa.
As the aircraft drew closer to the ground, the view of the city became clearer; the streets yonder looked empty and there was barely any human activity in the suburbs around the airport. To the naked eye, Bujumbura cuts a bored look.
Despite the falling darkness, there seemed to be no electricity to lighten up the city at night making it even more dangerous for Burundians still in the country to venture out in the night.
Cases of coldblooded assassinations of top officials and of bodies found left hurled on streets have dominated media reports from inside Bujumbura lately. It is not safe for those seen as being against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s defiant cling to power to serve a disputed third term.
According to a source that has recently fled Bujumbura and relocated to Kigali, the city closes at 6pm and everyone rushes to the safety of their homes making the city literally dead at dusk.
The bar business was one of the most dominant forms of enterprise in peaceful Bujumbura; Burundians love to have a good time. However, the insecurity has left the sector dead for either their owners have fled the city or there are simply no customers to come calling.
One man’s testimony
Faustin Kanuma is a Rwandan businessman married to a Burundian. He had been based in Bujumbura, dealing in minerals, for a decade until around May this year when he was forced to flee the country with his family.
He knows at least two dozen other colleagues from Rwanda and Uganda who found themselves in a similar situation and fleeing was the only choice.
“I wouldn’t have fled Bujumbura had it not been the circumstances; I was forced to close my businesses and sold off my property because of the insecurity,” he told me.
Kanuma is now in Kigali where he is trying to re-establish himself after a decade’s worth of hard work was brought to a grinding halt in Burundi.
Although he still owns some property in Burundi, Kanuma admits that he doesn’t know what it would take for him to return to Bujumbura. His wife is here. He has a new business. And his kids have been put in schools in Rwanda.
“I had a lot of faith and hope in Burundi. We all did. What we hadn’t anticipated is that someone could do so much to shatter that hope and faith,” Kanuma remarked.
His pain is shared by hundreds of other Rwandans who previously owned retail and wholesale shops in the city, those have since returned home to start afresh.
“I know a Ugandan friend who was running a freight business, helping traders to bring in stuff from Asia and other countries, he quit after business came to a standstill, he is now based in Kampala,” shared Kanuma.
There have been many such cases of relocation. Most have either relocated to Rwanda or Uganda as well as Tanzania. For ordinary Burundians, hundreds of thousands are now refugees in camps, many for the third time in less than two decades.
Lonely Airport
The aircraft finally landed; it was all clear to the eye, Bujumbura international airport cut a very lonely figure. Only two flights were in place, others were junk Air Burundi aircrafts that were not airworthy.
A distance away, a RwandAir flight was taxing on the runway preparing for take-off to Kigali; faces of passengers could be seen pressed against the windows, having what appeared to be a last look at a city they called home.
The aircraft was gone in a few minutes.
The aircraft that had come in from Nairobi had plenty of unoccupied seats and when its doors went ajar, only a handful of passengers walked out of its large belly giving way for dozens of Burundians who boarded from Bujumbura.
Soon, the aircraft was filled to capacity, excited Burundians could be heard speaking excitedly in their local dialect, seemingly happy to be getting away.
But as the aircraft prepared to take-off for its final destination, Kigali, another jet landed a distance away; it was an Air Burundi aircraft, from the colours. What had it brought?
It was now almost 7pm, East African time and the airport was getting dark making it difficult to see objects within two kilometres away.
The doors of the newly landed aircraft opened and a long file of soldiers marched out and assembled outside a pink building at the far end of the airport; although they were dressed in full combat fatigue, they didn’t appear to be armed.
After they had all trooped off the plane, they formed a dark crowd outside the building, perhaps waiting to be led away; but as they stood there waiting, equipment that appeared to be weapons got hurled out of the underbelly of the aircraft. What was going on?
No one really knows what will happen in Burundi. What appeared to be a small power dispute in February has since matured into a large elephant in a tiny room.
A solution could be in President Nkurunziza’s hands, the chief antagonist in Burundi’s political drama; unfortunately, he appears to be readying himself for a long term fight. A few weeks ago, the embattled politician sent his wife and children abroad to a country thought to be Malaysia.
“The solution lies with Burundian politicians, they need to sit and iron out their differences for the sake of peace and stability of the country,” Kanuma said.
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