BUJUMBURA October 23rd (ABP) – The Ministry of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security celebrated, Friday October 20, 2023, in Gatumba in Mutimbuzi commune, Bujumbura province (Western Burundi) the reduction day disaster risks in which the provincial and communal administration and organizations of the United Nations system took part, under the theme “fighting inequalities for a resilient future”.
In his welcoming remarks, the governor of Bujumbura province, Mr. Désiré Nsengiyumva, said that the Gatumba zone is often flooded and its people are constantly on the move. He invited the government of Burundi and the United Nations organizations to intervene in order to find a lasting solution to that situation.
The representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), on behalf of the coordinator of the United Nations system he represented, indicated that Burundi is one of the countries most affected by climatic hazards and the victims are often the vulnerable people without the means to cope with the damage and forced to live in precarious situations of internal displacement or food insecurity for months or years. He added that the worsening of global warming requires the United Nations system to further increase cooperation with Burundi to strengthen prevention measures.
The permanent secretary at the Ministry of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security, Mr. André Ndayambaje indicated that in the event of a disaster, the affected people need to be assisted. In everyday work, Burundi recommends that the population work in groups of cooperatives to resist the consequences of disasters together.
He indicated that that celebrated day is an opportunity to make a self-assessment in terms of risk prevention and the fight against disasters. Mapping helped identify 50 communalities most vulnerable to disaster risks, Mutimbuzi being the 4th after the three urban communes.
He recalled that the Gatumba zone is often threatened by flooding. Its population is housed at the Sobel and Kinyinya II site; underlined Mr. Ndayambaje while revealing that identification is underway to know the real numbers.
He thanked organizations such as the Burundi Red Cross and the United Nations system for their intervention and called on them to continue on the same path