Bujumbura

Like children who cannot wait to open presents on Christmas Day, South African soldiers cheered loudly when a large cargo plane carrying goodwill parcels from home arrived in Burundi on Tuesday. When the cargo plane flew over the Modderfontein base in Africa’s Great Lakes region, they spontaneously started singing.

Grenade attacks on the homes of five prominent Burundian opposition politicians wounded two bystanders but did not injure their intended target, a police official said. A police spokesperson said attackers dressed in civilian clothes carried out a ”meticulously prepared” attack on Monday.

Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza awarded government workers a 34% pay rise as the small Central African nation celebrated Labour Day on Tuesday. The increment was in line with economic growth the country recorded in the past year, Nkurunziza said in a televised speech late on Monday.

Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have adopted a joint military strategy to fight rebel groups operating in the war-scarred Great Lakes region, officials said on Thursday. Military commanders from the four countries said those operations would be planned and carried out in conjunction with the country where the rebels are based.

The African Union on Wednesday officially created a peacekeeping force of more than 1 500 South African troops for Burundi to help integrate the country’s last active rebel movement. The pan-African body has taken over from the United Nations in order to facilitate the integration of the Forces of National Liberation (FNL) into a broader peace process.

About 300 000 Burundians affected by floods since November last year are due to receive seeds from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to tide them over until the next harvest season, a WFP official has said. The agency will provide the aid between February 15 and March 15.

Thousands of people have been displaced by flooding in Burundi after heavy rains washed out homes near the capital over the weekend, local officials said on Monday. Officials estimated that at least 7 500 people had been left homeless in suburbs south and west of Bujumbura.”

The delayed implementation of a landmark truce between the Burundi government and the country’s last active rebel group is to kick off next week, officials said Sunday. The ceasefire deal principally calls on the insurgents to assemble in camps from where they will either be integrated into the army or police force or be demobilised.