A sobering look at Burundi

One of the things about Burundi that has been hard for us to understand is how lush and rich the landscape is, and yet, within that landscape exists extreme poverty. It’s almost hidden by the beauty of the country. Because it is a landlocked country, it is difficult for the country to export any of their natural resources (coffee & tea make up most of the GDP). Tourism could be their greatest resource, but the major issue is a lack of land. To put this in perspective, I’ll compare it to Maryland which is only slightly larger in area -



About 500,000 Burundian refugees are estimated to have returned between 2002-2009. Hundreds of thousands more are expected to return in the next 5 years increasing the demand for land purely for subsistence farming. It’s a tricky problem without an easy answer. Add to this, a 10% orphan population mostly due to HIV/AIDs and a high unemployment rate and you’ve got a whole mess of things to resolve.

If you’re bored/want to educate yourself a bit/like to click on things, here are the sources I used in reference to the above as well as some additional information.

General Facts & Information about Burundi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/by.html

Economic Outlook
http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/countries/east-africa/burundi/

Migration Trends in Burundi (history of the country, refugee movement, and citizen movement)
http://mgsog.merit.unu.edu/ISacademie/docs/CR_burundi.pdf

Refugee Interviews
http://www.irinnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?InDepthId=16&ReportId=62541
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-08-31-4113265492_x.htm