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Senators in Burundi uphold rights of men who have sex with men

UNAIDS welcomes the Senate action in Burundi to reject a draft law that sought to criminalize homosexuality. Senators in Burundi overwhelmingly rejected an amendment of the penal code that included provisions for imprisonment of people who have sexual relationships with those of the same sex. “By rejecting this amendment, Senators in Burundi have protected the human rights of their people,” said Mr Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “They have also set a standard for other lawmakers...

BURUNDI: Government, health officials seek to resolve strike

BUJUMBURA Tuesday, December 02, 2008 (IRIN) - The government and senior health officials have started discussions to end a strike by staff that has crippled health services across the country, sources said. Emmanuel Gikoro, the Health Minister, met provincial health directors, hospital managers and heads of health districts over the weekend, but said the government would not be able to increase salaries. "Payment of the claimed salary increase will [only] be possible after cancellation of...

BURUNDI: Patients suffer as health workers' strike continues

BUJUMBURA Friday, November 28, 2008 (IRIN) - A weeklong strike by health workers in Burundi has cut services in key hospitals to a bare minimum, with patients complaining of neglect. “I have constant pain in my stomach and chest; I recently gave birth but remained unwell and in need of medical care," Cecile Ndayishimiye, a patient in Bujumbura, the capital, said. "I gave birth two weeks now but my child is not breastfeeding because I am sick; this strike is too bad for me." The nurses and...

BURUNDI: Cholera outbreak affects 42 in northeast

BUJUMBURA Wednesday, November 26, 2008 (IRIN) - At least 42 people have been afflicted in an outbreak of cholera in the north-eastern province of Cibitoke, according to health officials."The rate of infection keeps on rising," Martin Bayisingize, the provincial director of health, said. The disease was confirmed to be cholera.Several localities in the Rugombo commune of the province have been affected, Bayisingize said. Rugombo does not have a supply of clean drinking water, he said.The Red...

BURUNDI: Learning to live together in one village

BUJUMBURA Friday, September 26, 2008 (IRIN) - Years ago, Mammert Buregeya, a 54-year-old displaced Burundian Tutsi, would probably have refused to live in Muriza “peace village” because that would bring him close to Hutu returnees. "Suspicion between Tutsi IDPs [internally displaced persons] and Hutu returnees is something of the past," he said after accepting the offer of a house in Muriza in August. He was also tired of moving from camp to camp as he has been doing since 1993, and so...

BURUNDI: Fighting for land

BUJUMBURA Monday, October 06, 2008 (IRIN) - Thousands of Burundians have returned home after years of refugee life in Tanzania, but finding shelter and enough land to farm remains a challenge."Fifteen percent of long-term returnees repatriated this year are landless," said Léon Ndikunkiko, spokesman for the Ministry of National Solidarity, National Reconstruction, Human Rights and Gender.In mid-August, some 1,200 returnees were stranded in Makamba Province, waiting to be resettled. By...

BURUNDI: Heavy rains leave families homeless and in need of aid

BUJUMBURA Tuesday, October 14, 2008 (IRIN) - Hundreds of families are without assistance in the northwestern province of Cibitoke after heavy rains damaged houses and crops, officials said. The administrator of the Mabayi commune in Cibitoke, Jean-Marie Vianney Hategekimana, said exact figures were not available, adding: “We are still assessing the damage and the needs of the population.” Early in October, residents of the communes of Bukinanyana and Murwi, also in Cibitoke, suffered heavy...

BURUNDI: A belated start to HIV prevention for gays

BUJUMBURA Tuesday, October 21, 2008 (IRIN) - When Georges Kanuma, the head of a gay rights movement in Burundi, first attended an HIV conference in 2004, he was surprised to discover that water-based lubricants, and not petroleum jelly - which breaks down the latex that condoms are made from - should be used during anal sex to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). "I had never heard of such a thing, and I know if I hadn't heard of it, then definitely most men who have...

BURUNDI: Yves Niyonkuru: "I knew about HIV, but sex was better without a condom"

BUJUMBURA Wednesday, October 22, 2008 (IRIN) - Yves Niyonkuru is a lanky 30-year-old Burundian who speaks easily about his life as a gay man in a society that has little tolerance for homosexuality. He told IRIN/PlusNews about his experiences since coming out of the closet. "When I was 18 I told my mother that I was gay. She was very supportive, probably because she has a brother who is a cross-dressing gay man herself - he lives in Brussels now, because he couldn't be himself here. To be...

BURUNDI: HIV programmes suffer as government, NGOs feel the pinch

BUJUMBURA Friday, October 24, 2008 (IRIN) - HIV programmes in Burundi have been struggling to support people affected by the pandemic since the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria rejected the country's request for funds a year ago. "It has been very hard; we have tried to use our internal resources and prioritise interventions to make sure that we cover the most important activities," Dr Jean Rirangira, the interim executive secretary of the national AIDS control...