Buyengero : access to the market conditioned by the contribution for the 2025 legislative elections

Inhabitants of the Mudende zone in the district of Buyengero in the province of Rumonge (southwest Burundi) denounce contributions collected by local administration officials and representatives of the CNDD-FDD. Access to the Kabumburi market in particular is conditioned by the payment of these contributions intended for the CNDD-FDD, the ruling party. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The money collected is paid into the accounts of the ruling party. It will serve as an election campaign fund.

Since Monday, August 19, 2024, administration officials and representatives of the CNDD-FDD party have been collecting funds for the ruling party’s campaign in synergy, according to residents of this locality.

On August 19, the first day of these contributions, the chief of the CNDD-FDD in the Mudende zone, Sédéchias Ntiranyibagira mobilized Imbonerakure (members of the CNDD-FDD youth league) from his zone.

“They were collecting contributions on behalf of the CNDD-FDD. All people who went to the Kabumburi market should pay money,” says a witness to the scene, himself a victim of the practice.

According to residents, each person gives an amount between 1,000 and 2,000 Burundi francs.

“It is unacceptable that we are required to contribute to a party for which we do not campaign,” lament inhabitants of Mudende.

According to them, if the CNDD-FDD wants to collect funds that will help it prepare for its campaign, it only has to ask its activists and supporters to support it and not the entire Burundian population.

On August 18, the secretary general of the former Hutu rebellion, Révérien Ndikuriyo, wrote to all members of his party and supporters asking them to make contributions in order to better prepare for the 2025 legislative elections “that we must win as has been the case for other elections in the past”.

But in this letter seen by SOS Médias Burundi and according to which the contributions should be given between August 19 and 29, Mr. Ndikuriyo was very clear : “contributions are voluntary”.

But SOS Médias Burundi has information from other provinces of Burundi including Rutana and Makamba in the southwest that “Imbonerakure (members of the CNDD-FDD youth league), administration officials and representatives of this party go so far as to sit with tax collectors at official barriers in order to collect these contributions”.

People who donate, whether or not they are members of the ruling party, receive receipts, SOS Médias Burundi reporters noted.