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Hunger kills 21 in Burundi's Muyinga province

Xinhua, March 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

21 persons from the Twa minority group living at Ruganirwa in Muyinga province, 200 km northeast of the Burundian capital Bujumbura, died of hunger since January this year, the Burundi News Agency reported Wednesday.

The agency reported that people from the Twa minority group living at Ruganirwa site face "extreme poverty" with no land at all to grow crops.

The Twa living at Ruganirwa are facing serious food shortages and are sheltered in indecent houses.

According to the state-run news agency, by the beginning of March, 12 persons had died due to diseases linked with hunger, adding that the figure of hunger victims has risen to 21.

The agency indicated that the administration in Muyinga province has started to collect food aid to assist hunger victims.

The agency added that the World Food Program (WFP) has decided to distribute food to the victims, adding that the operation of distributing food to the Twa people living at Ruganirwa will take three months.

The food shortage at Ruganirwa is said to have been caused by climate change that hit the previous farming season.

Burundi has three ethnic groups (Hutu, Tutsi and Twa groups), but the Twa minority group is not a hard-working category in Burundi as well as in the African Great Lakes region where Twas exist. Endit