By deciding to close the border with Rwanda which was followed by hunting and expelling Rwandans living in Burundi, Burundian President Ndayishimiye has shot himself in the foot. Just because he is attempting to please Tshisekedi!
The excuses he forwarded were only a pretext. “Gen. Neva” decided to appease his Congolese counterpart Tshisekedi whom he is siding with the current conflict in eastern DRC. They are the biggest source of regional instability!
Ndayishimiye’s border closure is more incomprehensible, since his “master” Tshisekedi has never closed borders with Rwanda, despite all the bad propaganda against Rwanda.
Is Ndayishimiye too dense not to see he does not have much to gain from this border closure, but rather he will only make poor Burundian suffer more?
Cross-border trading since the border reopened in 2022 allowed Burundians to easily get basic needs from Rwanda, such as Sugar, Milk, Maize floor and other necessities that are scarce in their country. Secondly, the Burundian ruler’s act has also affected the country’s business people, who invested in textile, transport, and hospitality sectors, which depended on Rwanda as a good gateway in the region.
How long can those businesses survive? It is also a hard blow for all the Burundian peasant gardeners in the Cibitoke province, close to the border, who realize the bulk of their turnover with Rwanda.
Furthermore, after Ndayishimiye took the infantile decision to please Tshisekedi, the closure of the borders between Rwanda and Burundi also has disrupted travelers from Goma and Bukavu, Students, the sick, traders and others travelling from Goma to Bujumbura now have a longer journey.
Transporters on their part fear experiencing a shortfall and other possible difficulties, It took at least four hours to make the Bukavu-Bujumbura trip, but today we are already doing nine to ten hours! they lament. Things aren’t easy with the state of the road which leads Bukavu-Uvira-Bujumbura
Burundi is really on the verge of bankruptcy, plunged into an economic crisis that continues to worsen as the days go by. Ndayishimiye has never found a solution, and resorts to gimmicks like closing the border.
It will only continue to hurt very many starved and oppressed Burundians, and Tshisekedi will not help him in the long run.
ellenkampire