By Ebi Kesiena
Burundi celebrated the 60th anniversary of its independence in Bujumbura with a military parade and guests of honor from around the world.
The Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye during the ceremony hailed the new Burundi after 6 years and further advocated for a better tomorrow for the central African country.
Also, Ndayishimiye, urged the citizens to preserve the good chapter the country was experiencing.
“After 60 years, Burundi is no longer the same, it is a new Burundi, it is for this reason that we must cherish the chapter that we have started, we must not deviate from the good path that we have taken,” said
President Ndayishimiye further reckoned the underdevelopment status of the country linking colonization as the root of ethnical vices like wars.
This, according to Evariste Ndayishimiye, has relegated the country to the bottom of the economic ladder. Burundi is ranked as the poorest country in the world by the World Bank.
“This colonization divided us, and this had many consequences. Burundians killed one another, the Burundian authorities did not understand who the Burundian people were and organized the murders themselves,” he said.
Ndayishimiye further warned individuals who propagate instability against doing so and further warned western countries against harboring such individuals.
“People who disturb our countries should not be welcomed in these Western countries. As long as these people have countries in which they can settle down and live in peace, they will continue to disturb African countries. So, if the international community wants peace in Africa, we ask them to not welcome on their soil anyone who disturbs African countries,” said Ndayishimiye.
Ndayishimiye was elected in May 2020, raising hopes that the iron-fisted and repressive state would open up, which have since been dashed.
He succeeded the late president Pierre Nkurunziza, whose insistence on a third term in office in 2015 plunged the country into a serious and prolonged political crisis marked by summary executions, disappearances, arbitrary arrests and torture of dissidents.
