Containing Violence: Burundi (1993 – 2001+)

Background
A rebellion in 1993 within the Burundian army led to the killing of the country’s first democratically elected Hutu president. Rumours started that Tutsis were going to start killing Hutus. In response to the rumours, pre-emptive killing then started with Hutus murdering their Tutsi neighbours. The Tutsi dominated army retaliated by killing thousands of Hutus. The ensuing civil war claimed 200,000 lives.

Involvement
ActionAid is a UK-based international NGO which fights for the right for human security and just governance. It had been in Burundi since 1976, building schools, providing education equipment, helping with rural development and poverty alleviation. Members of ActionAid Burundi (AAB) gathered to discuss how to carry out relief work in the emergency situation. They decided to continue with their relief and development work with a view to thereby promoting peace and reconciliation. They asked the community to identify their needs. This approach called Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) requires researchers/NGO field Workers to help local people conduct their own analysis, plan and take action accordingly. AAB helped local groups to organized multi-ethnic committees to undertake surveys of the needs of the households in their vicinity. The Committees were then given the needed materials to distribute themselves. For the fist time since the violence the Tutsis and Hutus were working together. AAB persuaded people to return to their homes after ensuring that they were safe, then helped with a rebuilding programme. They supplied much of the materials and the community built the houses.

Outcome
With AAB supporting the construction of 4,500 houses in the Ruyigi province alone, life began to return to normal. Markets started up again and refugees began to return. However violent conflict continued in other parts of the country.

AAB’s success in the Ruyigi area was partly attributed that to the respect they had earned by their years of work in the area and by the fact that they had stayed on when the troubles were at their worse.