Bujumbura: Deadly floods are wreaking havoc in many parts of East Africa that face torrential rainfall, with the poor nation of Burundi calling for international help to deal with the aftermath. Lake Tanganyika’s rising waters have invaded the port of Bujumbura, Burundi’s economic capital, disrupting business there and elsewhere in the country that relies heavily on donor support to run government programmes.
“We are issuing this statement to ask our development partners to combine efforts with the state of
Burundi to help all people affected by these disasters,” Interior Minister Martin Niteretse said April 17. “We need that support.”
Niteretse spoke in Bujumbura alongside Violet Kenyana Kakyomya, the UN resident coordinator in Burundi.
Between September and April 7, some 203,944 people were affected by flooding, with 19,250 homes and 209 classrooms destroyed during that time.
The number of people internally displaced by flooding rose by 25 per cent, reaching over 98,000 people, according to Kakyomya.
Burundi is one of the world’s poorest countries, with 80 per cent of its 13 million people employed in agriculture, according to the World Bank.
Flooding there has created surreal scenes like game rangers entering the waterlogged Rusizi National Park in a canoe. The Boulevard du Japon, a major highway in Bujumbura, has been completely flooded in recent days.