Tensions remain high in Burundi as protesters continue to oppose President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term. Baptists in the East African country are expressing grave concerns, according to Baptist World Alliance (BWA).
“We ask you to continue to pray for us because some have left their jobs, homes and churches,” said Juvenal Nzosaba, general secretary of the Union of Baptist Churches in Burundi. “Many people do not have food. It is a major problem.”
Presidential election
The crisis began in late April after Nkurunziza’s ruling party nominated him to stand again in the June 26 presidential election. The situation worsened when a top general staged a failed coup attempt May 13 while Nkurunziza was in Kenya in meetings to resolve the country’s issues.
The country’s constitution says a president’s five-year term may be renewed only once.
Many people have been injured in the midst of almost daily protests against Nkurunziza during May, sources reported.
More than 110,000 people have fled from the politically-based violence to neighboring countries, according to the United Nations. Cholera has broken out in refugee camps in Tanzania, killing at least 27 people.
The crisis has begun to take an economic toll on one of the world’s poorest countries.
Gilbert Niyongabo, professor of economics at the University of Burundi in Bujumbura, told the New York Times he expects an economic collapse to occur in a month because of the impact of the crisis on rural areas of the country. When harvest season comes “there will be no customers for the agricultural products,” Niyongabo said.
According to the Times, many fear the political unrest will take on an ethnic dimension, much like the fighting between the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi in the Civil War from 1993 to 2005, which left at least 300,000 dead.
Internally displaced
Baptist leader Nzosaba told BWA that, at press time, more than 20 people have died, more than 100 have been injured and about 600 have been arrested, among whom were children and youth participating in the protests. In addition to those fleeing the country, thousands more are internally displaced.
Opposition groups said the president’s actions jeopardize a peace deal that has kept ethnic tensions in check since the Civil War ended in 2005.
Burundi has some 50,000 Baptist members in approximately 300 churches affiliated with two BWA member organizations.
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