Burundi, on Friday, July 1st, celebrated the 60th anniversary of its independence in the capital, Bujumbura, with pomp and elegance amid a military parade and guests of honor from around the world.
President Evariste Ndayishimiye who led the celebrations hailed “a new Burundi” after six years of being in power, while advocating for a “better tomorrow” for the central African country.
“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 Ndayishimiye.
While addressing his countrymen and the dignitaries who graced the occasion, President Ndayishimiye reckoned the underdevelopment status of the country linking colonizations as the root of ethnical vices like wars.
“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.
“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.”
Ndayishimiye further warned individuals who propagate instability in Africa against doing so and cautioned western countries against harboring such individuals.
“So, if the international community wants peace in Africa, we ask them to not welcome on their soil anyone who disturbs African countries,” Ndayishimiye added.
Ndayishimiye who was elected in May 2020, succeeded the late president Pierre Nkurunziza, whose insistence on a third term in office in 2015 plunged the country ranked as the poorest in the world by the World Bank, into a serious and prolonged political crisis marked by summary executions, disappearances, arbitrary arrests and torture of the opposition.