Burunga : free healthcare turns into crisis

SOS Mêdias Burundi

Burunga, November 7, 2025 – In Burunga province, southern Burundi, hospitals and health centers are suffocating. Promises of free healthcare for pregnant women and children under five are running up against a bitter reality : empty accounts, a lack of medication, no delivery supplies, and unpaid staff. This situation illustrates the deep-seated problems plaguing the entire Burundian healthcare system.

In the province’s health facilities, the crisis is palpable. Posters promoting free healthcare remain prominently displayed on the walls, but behind these official slogans, the daily lives of healthcare workers have turned into a nightmare. The last reimbursement invoices sent to the government date back to December 2024. Since then, total silence.

Health centers no longer have any means to operate. The accounts are empty, the medicine stocks depleted. Even the gloves used for delivering babies have disappeared, directly endangering midwives and patients. “We work with our bare hands, sometimes with improvised equipment. It’s dangerous for everyone,” confides a nurse at a health center in Burunga.

Emergency medical kits and supplies are nonexistent. Contract staff, already vulnerable, are two to four months behind on their salaries. Some continue out of a sense of duty, while others have abandoned their posts due to a lack of means of subsistence.

For the sick, the situation is no better. The promised free healthcare has vanished : even the smallest medication must now be purchased from private pharmacies at prices inaccessible to a population living in poverty. “They tell us it’s free, but here, without money, you won’t get treatment,” laments a mother encountered at the maternity ward in the main town of Burunga.

Even basic needs are no longer being met : no soap for hygiene, no fuel for ambulances, no gloves to protect staff. Public health is faltering, and the fear of losing lives due to lack of resources grows daily.

What is happening in Burunga is unfortunately not an isolated case. This province illustrates a national crisis : in several regions of Burundi, medical facilities are experiencing the same payment delays, the same shortages, and the same human suffering.

Free healthcare programs, though praised at their launch, are collapsing under the weight of debt and a lack of follow-up. Hospitals are drained of resources, and the dedicated healthcare staff feel abandoned.

The example of Burunga highlights the fragility of the Burundian healthcare system. Behind the promises of free healthcare lies a stark reality : a healthcare network on the verge of collapse, where lives are being lost for lack of resources. Without a swift and genuine response from the authorities to release funds, replenish supplies, and support staff, free healthcare—once a symbol of hope—risks becoming one of the country’s greatest social failures.