Unrest in Burundi but the NTD Team Wishes to Continue Working as Normal

During the night of the 17th to the 18th of April 2008, attacks were launched against Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi, and its surroundings.

Since Burundi became independent in 1961, the country has seen quite a number of periods of political instability, the last one of which ended a few years ago, after 10 years of civil war. The country seemed to be finally reaching out to peace, with all but one political movement having signed a peace agreement with the ruling government.

However, during the night of the 17th to the 18th of April 2008, attacks were launched against Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi, and its surroundings. The government and their opponents accused each other of having started the hostilities and the country suffered another few weeks of unrest, as a result.

April was going to be a very busy time for the NTD Control team in Burundi with the national baseline survey for schistosomiasis and the soil-transmitted helminths planned. Although all the stakeholders pleaded for the team to postpone all field activities and resume work only when full security had returned, the team decided otherwise. In the words of Dr Onésime Ndayishimiye, the national coordinator of the NTD Control programme in Burundi, the current situation was nothing much compared to what every adult Burundian had to go through in recent years and so did not call for a halt in activities but merely increased vigilance. The decision to continue field activities as planned was unanimously taken by the team and the national baseline survey for schistosomiasis and the soil-transmitted helminths was conducted as planned. The team took the appropriate measures to ensure their own safety such as not driving at night time, and conducting the survey in the most unstable areas last, once the security had improved.

In front of this supreme act of commitment to the programme and to improving the health of the Burundian population, all the stakeholders would like to express once again their admiration to the whole NTD Control team of Burundi.