Burundi : residents block Rutana-Gihofi road for being deprived of fertilizers

SOS Médias Burundi

Rutana, November 2, 2026 — The distribution of chemical fertilizers produced by Fertilisants Organo-Minéraux Industries (FOMI), a Burundian company specializing in the manufacture of agricultural inputs, continues to anger farmers. On Friday, October 30, residents of Kabanga village, in the district of Rutana, Burunga Province, in southeastern Burundi, barricaded the Rutana-Gihofi road with tree trunks to protest what they consider an unfair distribution of fertilizers. Traffic was temporarily paralyzed before the intervention of the police and army.

Residents demand fertilizers

Traffic on the Rutana-Gihofi road was interrupted Friday morning at Kabanga village. According to an administrative source in the Rutana district, residents took to the streets after learning that farmers in neighboring villages and surrounding areas had already received their fertilizers, while their village had not yet been supplied.

To express their discontent, they placed tree trunks across the road, blocking traffic.

The situation required police intervention, supported by the military, to try to restore traffic flow. However, the security forces encountered resistance from the protesters. The road was only cleared after the arrival of a truck carrying fertilizers from FOMI.

In the same area, the agricultural extension worker and the area chief were held hostage by angry residents before the police intervened.

Anger already expressed in Butanyerera

This demonstration echoes the one held on October 26 in Matongo, in Butanyerera province, in the north of the country, where residents of Busangana also blocked a road to protest the insufficient amount of fertilizers distributed.

Read also : [Burundi : the FOMI fertilizer fiasco starves farmers and threatens harvests]

The repetition of these protests in different localities highlights the tensions surrounding fertilizer distribution and the difficulties faced by farmers in accessing the quantities they expect.

While farmers are expressing their discontent on the ground, Burundian authorities are making numerous statements on Burundi’s national radio and television network (RTNB), claiming that citizens are completely satisfied with the fertilizer distribution. This narrative contrasts sharply with the protests taking place in Burunga and Butanyerera.

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A man unloads bags of chemical fertilizers in Bubanza, western Burundi, as their insufficient distribution sparks anger among farmers, particularly in Rutana and Matongo (SOS Médias Burundi)