Kirundo-Busoni : a single cold room for nearly a million inhabitants, an alarming sanitary challenge

SOS Médias Burundi

Kirundo, March 27, 2026 — In the north of the small east African nation, the districts of Kirundo and Busoni, today attached to the province of Butanyerera, face a worrying situation : a single cold room for a population estimated at nearly one million inhabitants.

An overflowing morgue facing strong demand

The Kirundo Hospital morgue, the only functional infrastructure in the area, is regularly full.
“It often happens that all the cases are occupied. We are obliged to ask the families to wait for another body to be withdrawn to be able to accommodate theirs”, confides a member of the nursing staff anonymously.

Families forced to act urgently

Faced with this saturation, bereaved families find themselves in difficult situations. Some are forced to leave the remains at the morgue for several days, waiting for a place to be available.
“We don’t have the means to go to Ngozi to look for another cold room. So, we are obliged to organize the burial quickly, even if we are not ready”, testified a resident of Busoni.

In the most critical cases, when the morgue is completely full, the bodies can begin to degrade.
“If families are late and there is more space, the corpse begins to emit a bad smell. It’s a very painful situation, as much for the relatives as for the staff”, added a hospital agent.

The lack of infrastructures is the cause

Medical personnel sound the alarm and call for durable solutions. Among the priorities mentioned are the extension of the existing morgue and the construction of a new cold room at the Mukenke Hospital.
“The expansion of the morgue in Kirundo is indispensable, but it is also necessary to bring services closer to the population of Busoni. A cold room in Mukenke would allow the situation to be significantly de-congested,” said a local health authority.

Power cuts aggravate the crisis

Another major challenge is added to this lack of infrastructure: repeated power cuts. These cells compromise the proper functioning of the cold room and oblige the hospital to resort to a generator.
“In these conditions, we use a more powerful generator, which uses more than 20 liters of fuel per hour. With the current shortage, it becomes extremely difficult to support”, explains an administrative manager of the hospital.

An urgent appeal to the authorities

Faced with this critical situation, health professionals and the local populations launch an urgent appeal to the competent authorities.
“The dignity of the deceased and the respect of the families must be a priority.” It is urgent to invest in infrastructures adapted to meet the needs of the population”, insists a health worker.

While the population continues to grow in this northern region of Burundi, the issue of mortuary infrastructure is now a major health and human issue.