Support the People of Burundi to Ensure Stability of their Country
The attempted coup of May 2015 that nearly unseated President
Nkurunziza intensified protests that
had begun earlier and since then the situation in the country has
steadily deteriorated with no known political settlement to the crisis that has
since caused more than a thousand deaths and displaced hundreds of thousands. The
international community has only been seen as sending mixed signals with
dwindling international presence in Burundi. The AU has since failed to take
any significant measures to avert a possible genocide. The EAC has been toying
with possibilities with a mediation process that is excruciatingly slow and one
that does not seem to be headed to any possible sustainable way forward.
The Burundi situation has largely been left to the people of
Burundi themselves. Interestingly, it appears that many Burundians are growing in
awareness of the fact that none other than themselves can actually save their country.
Burundians are redoubling their efforts to stop a return to war. For instance, there is a network of volunteer citizen
reporters reporting from around the country on outbreaks of violence in their
area for possible action. This is a very good initiative since the mainstream media
has since been crippled and international presence is dwindling. Social media
and such a group of locals within organized networks of citizens provide
priceless source of information that only them can access. This way the local
networks of the citizens are filling the information void that has since been
deliberately created in Burundi.
The citizen reporters have received training on how to assess
and report information, which they send in from around the country using a
specialist mobile text messaging system. Each of the messages is logged,
assessed for its relevance to the developing situation, and then verified by
the staff in Bujumbura. They cross-check incident reports with other citizen reporters,
any publicly available information, and the network’s own contacts in the
police, military and elsewhere. The reporting is risky, so everyone is very
careful with the information produced. Their operation is building a picture of
violent hotspots – an ‘Early Warning’ network in every province around the
country. With international reporting capacity generally limited to the
capital, it provides an almost unique source of countrywide intelligence.
This is proof of the effectiveness of local networks in
penetrating deeper and complex issues that plague the society. Outsiders are
not going to help Burundi; neither can they help any other country in Africa or
elsewhere. This cannot be stressed further given the level at which
international presence has vanished in Burundi following the crisis. The best
they can do is speculate, spectate, issue travel advisories and warnings and
watch as the situation deteriorates. I think the best or the least, whichever
way one may look at it, that outsiders can do is support such community and
citizen led initiatives especially in boosting their efficiency through provision
of technical and material support.
Support the People of Burundi to Ensure Stability of their Country
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
June 13, 2016
Rating:
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