You may have not heard of it because it never became a trending subject, but Burundi is a bleeding country. With years of civil and ethnic war in its history, Burundi's one shot at peace came to an end when President Pierre Nkurunziza revealed he will run for a third term in 2015.
A landlocked country residing in the African Great lakes region of East Africa, Burundi is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Although blessed by a mesmerizing nature filled with mountains and a lakeside, Burundi is no longer considered a tourism magnet due to the ethnic conflicts continually breaking loose within it. News of Burundi's suffering never got a share over the spotlights like Adele's hit single "Hello" or Drake's "Hotline Bling", which in turn kept the ongoing assaults on human rights from being noticed by the world. In fact, it wasn't until the latest UN official report that unveiled the depth of the problem in the country that some attention was given to the sensitive topic.
An investigation has been called for by UN officials to look into the reports of mass graves and sexual assaults in Burundi. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said that thirteen cases of sexual assaults against women have been reported so far. Some witnesses have reported that the army was carrying retaliatory actions against opposing neighborhoods. Those actions involved rape of the females in the houses being attacked by the soldiers. Some of these attacks were described as Gang rape and another involved the rape of five women in the same house.
Since the President's re-election in July, an increased surge of violence over took the country
especially its capital Bujumbura. The bloodshed has already taken 400 lives and left 200,000 civilians to flee from their homes. The UN is also highly alarmed by the reports of mass graves, tortures, and ethnic repression revolving around the situation. Moreover, The capital Bujumbura has already witnessed the worse with 9 mass graves found within it including a total of 100 bodies.
The situation has already reached a highly alarming level with so many innocent people dead. Even though the UN seems to be focused on the situation and the news seem to share the concern, there is an evident neglect of the problem when it comes to the social media. The most trending topics on Facebook for the week include Celine Dion's brother's death. Though his death is also tragic it apparently is more important than 400 people dead and counting up on the bodies in Burundi.
Why aren't we praying for them too?
