Rumonge : about fifty children drop out of school in Mayengo

In the Kigwena zone and the Mayengo peace village, located in the district and province of Rumonge in southwest Burundi, school officials are sounding the alarm about the growing number of school dropouts. The main cause is household poverty.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Since the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, 50 schoolchildren under the age of 14 have left school. Parents and school officials agree that this situation is due to the precarious living conditions of inhabitants of the village of Mayengo. Deprived of land to cultivate and means of subsistence, the latter struggle to ensure their daily survival.

An origin linked to floods

The Mayengo peace village was created to relocate victims of the 2022 floods caused by the rising waters of Lake Tanganyika. These floods had forced the inhabitants of the districts of Bugarama and Muhuta to abandon their land and homes. Although the government responded to this crisis by providing them with new shelters, it did not solve the crucial problem of the lack of arable land. Most of these families used to live off agriculture and livestock.

Since their relocation, the inhabitants of Mayengo have been asking for land and livelihoods. So far, no concrete measures have been taken to respond to these demands, plunging the families into extreme precariousness.

Consequences on children’s education

Faced with this situation, many children in the village drop out of school to contribute to the survival of their families. Some turn to small jobs or go fishing in Lake Tanganyika, while others become easy prey for child traffickers. Cases have been reported in the Kigwena zone, where children are recruited and taken to neighboring Tanzania.

According to education sources, the Mayengo peace village had 500 pupils at the beginning of the school year. Today, a tenth of these schoolchildren have already left school.

Call for help from parents and authorities

Parents are urging administration authorities of Rumonge to take measures to bring their children back to school and stop this dropout phenomenon. In response, the district administrator, Augustin Minani, visited the Kigwena zone very recently to examine the challenges facing the region, particularly in the area of ​​education.

Mr. Minani said the district will do everything possible to bring children back to school and to punish illegal employers of children under 18 year of age. “All necessary measures will be taken to protect these children and put them back on the path to school,” he said.

An alarming example

A few days ago, nine girls under 16 year of age, pupils at the Busebwa basic school, were intercepted while trying to travel illegally to Tanzania to do small jobs after dropping out of school. This episode illustrates the urgent need to take measures to combat child trafficking and strengthen actions to keep children in school.

The situation in the Mayengo peace village highlights the terrible consequences of environmental crises and economic insecurity on children’s education.

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Young employees on a palm oil production site in Rumonge (SOS Médias Burundi)