Burundi is a small country located in the lower half of Africa. The, the country is one of the poorest nations in the world. Burundi is ranked among the ten poorest countries. This has been a result of many different factors across its history., The first factor concerns the natural limitations. Burundi is a landlocked (the country is mostly surrounded by land, it has no or almost no sealine or coastline) country with no special ground for farming, but unfortunately the territory is also lacking in resources unlike neighboring countries. These three issues have made the country very economically unstable and heavily dependant of other nations in order to survive.
Second, the political issues inside of the country. This is the most important piece in Burundi history and it is the cause of all the hardships that the country faces today. In 1993, the country suffered an ethnic- based civil war that lasted more than ten years until 2005. In Burundi, two different ethnic groups exist; the Hutus and the Tutsis. The two groups have had a great number of problems between them when the first Hhutu president was elected. The conflict started when the the Hutu president Ndadaye was assassinated and this led to an armed conflict that resulted in tenths of thousands of casualties. As a result of the war more than 48,000 refugees were forced to leave into Tarzania and more than 140,000 were displaced inside of the country’s territory.
After the war ended in 2005, political stability returned to Burundi. The country is to this day still recovering from the effects of the war and it has taken a majyor toll in the state’s economy. Subsequently, the country is now suffering from a of very high poverty rate, poor education, weak legal system, poor transportation network, overstrained utilities, and a low administrative capacity. Many of these problems are to be expected after a war of that magnitude but Burundi having no clear economical way of recovering has no made many changes for its population. On top of all Burundi has a very serious problem with the corruption. More recently the tensions have risen up again because of the President Nkurunziza third term. The citizens are not happy with this result and many protest have happened, for example stopping public transportation and the destruction of agricultural goods. It has gotten to the point that many big donors have withdrawn from the country, causing political turmoil for the government.
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The result of all of these events is one of the world’s poorest country with a GDP of 3.478 billion USD in 2017. More than 90 percent of the population is living in poverty, this mayor part of the population earns between $2-$3 per day. This has taken a serious toll on the development and health of the country. People commonly die because of diarrhea related illnesses because of consumption of unsafe water. Subsequently the median age in Burundi has become 17 years old and more than the 46 percent of the population is 14 years or younger. Along with these maternity and infant mortality rates are among the highest. Even though, the population is on the rise and as a result the problems just keep piling up without any clear solution.
Health is not the only problem for the country, the state wants to give free education to the population but is unable because the absence of funds to conduct such proposals. Hunger and the lack of governmental support has resulted in extremely high dropout rates. Children are forced to find a job or help with the family in order to survive. All of this along with the poor management of public finances and resources have made plans for helping the population such as the free education even less likely to happen in the close future.
Its easily perceived that what happens in Burundi are prime examples of Human Right violations. With the civil war many rights were abused, such as the right to develop or to right to free expression. Burundians were forced to find harborage inside the nation and other were even forced to escape into Tarzania, this interfered with the right of free development. Another example of a Human Rights violation is the fact that today children are forced to dropout in order to survive. Children have the rights that adults don’t have, for example the right to play or the right to an education. In both cases populations are not able to control the situations by themselves. The suffering and hard conditions in which they find themselves is a result of the decisions made in the past and are now manifesting their consequences. Unfortunately, corruption and dependency on other nations are problems of the present; to which, today, they don’t have clear plans or solutions to helping the situation.
In conclusion, Burundi has been a country that has been divided by ethnic differences and racial problems. To which both of these problems caused a civil war that its repercussions are still happening today: 90 percent of the population lives in poverty, children are forced to dropout of school, corruption and no market stability. These are the problem Burundi faces today.
