Burundi’s acute political deadlock and the collapse of peace talks have raised fears that the nation might fall back into the deadly conflict that devastated the country for more than a decade.
“I’m scared because I have this feeling that the country is going backwards instead of forwards,” said Cyrille Barekebuvuge, a shopowner in the centre of the capital, Bujumbura.
Burundi’s simmering political crisis boiled over for the first time on Sunday when grenades were hurled at the homes of five politicians who had recently been critical of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
Three people were wounded in the simultaneous attacks, which the main opposition Frodebu party described as “assassination attempts” and blamed on the government.
“Sunday’s attacks are only exacerbating an already tense situation … All this risks re-igniting war in the country, when I thought this era was history,” said Barekebuvuge.
Burundi has been slowly emerging from almost 14 years of civil war, which left an estimated 300 000 people dead.
The conflict started in 1993 between the army, which at the time was dominated by the Tutsi minority, and Hutus rebels split into several factions.
The last rebel outfit refusing a peace deal with Bujumbura — the National Liberation Forces — recently walked out of ceasefire talks and its commanders returned to the bush, prompting fears it was gearing up for conflict.
Burundi’s first democratically elected government took office in September 2005. Since then, however, the climate has soured and the president’s party no longer has enough seats in Parliament to pass any laws.
“Poverty has never affected so many people and the government wants to simply eliminate members of the opposition … All this is very reminiscent of what was happening in 1994, at the height of the crisis,” said Aimable, a young civil servant.
“When we had the elections, everyone was hailing a democratic process that was to bring peace back to the country,” said Jean-Marie Niyonkuru, a 42-year-old taxi driver and father of two.
“Today, my impression is that the same people who negotiated peace are doing everything they can to rekindle the war,” he added.
For months now, the international community — which not so long ago considered Burundi a success story — and the country’s churches have been urging the government and the opposition to resume dialogue.
“It’s the president who is responsible for the problems we are facing. He must pull himself together and tackle them properly,” said Jeanine, who works for a public company.
The 40-year-old woman, who studied political science, said she did not want her two children — aged two and seven — to “experience the same nightmare as their elders”.
“President Nkurunziza spends all his time outside of the capital, where he plays football with his team, sings and prays with his choir and rides his bicycle,” she claimed.
“He should also think about solving the country’s problems,” she added, expressing a widespread view that Nkurunziza, a 43-year-old former rebel who majored in sports, is lacking commitment.
The government has denied any involvement in Sunday’s grenade attacks. But they were preceded by a series of virulent verbal attacks against the opposition.
Earlier this month, the presidential party’s mouthpiece published the pictures of opposition politicians with the names and addresses of their relatives: for Frodebu, that was incitement to murder. — AFP