Bujumbura: cases of home abandonment goes up

In Bujumbura, the Burundi’s economic capital, fathers are deserting their homes and leaving their spouses and children without news. Women face alone the heavy financial responsibility of their household. Very often, they say they can no longer cope with the high cost of living.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Women met in the Gisandema neighborhood in the north of the commercial city recount their ordeal.

According to one of them: “my husband left for work as usual and I waited for him, in vain. A week, two weeks…and it’s been two years now. I’ve lost hope of seeing him come back.

She adds: “We managed the challenges of poverty together without worry. But he left overnight, leaving me alone with all the household responsibilities and our five children. Now I’m starting to miss the explanations to give to the children “.

She also indicates they were legally married. She asked her in-laws for news about her husband but no one could answer her.

But according to information reaching her, her husband is doing well and lives alone now. She wonders why he left home without saying anything.

Diane, another young woman, saw her husband leave because of a disagreement related to the use of contraceptive methods.

Another woman said she did not know why her husband left home. For her, he just shied away from his responsibilities.

“My husband always said that the household expenses were beginning to exceed his means. We had six children together, three are now in secondary school, the other three are still in primary school. All the children attend private schools. “Even though we have work, my husband found that our salaries were not enough, and every day, he even complained in front of the children,” she explains.

“Now I find myself alone facing these charges. His family suggested that I take legal action but I find it useless. He will come back when he wants,” she adds, resigned.

Not all of the women we met want to take legal action. They explain that today justice is corrupt, they do not want to waste their time for nothing.

Edine, one of these women, says she prefers to look for another occupation alongside the work she already does rather than taking legal action today.

Another category concerns women who raise children alone because the fathers have also left, but who lived in a common-law union. Which is considered today a crime in the eyes of some administrators.

Thus, they prefer to remain silent because they blame themselves for not having entered into a legal union. The children born from these extramarital relationships are the main victims.

They ask the government to at least protect the interests of children in such situations.

———

Marriage proposal from a Burundian couple in Bujumbura, 4/5/2024 (SOS Médias Burundi)