Burundi - Getting Around

Burundi has a good network of roads between the major towns and border posts-when they're not mined. Travel on other roads is hazardous, particularly in the rainy season. Public transportation to border points is often difficult and frequently unavailable, but it is improving. There has been a proliferation of modern Japanese-made minibuses in recent years. They're usually not terribly crowded and are far less expensive than taxis. These buses leave terminals (gare routiÅre) in every town in the early morning through the early afternoon, and depart when they are full. They display their destinations on the windshield. The government-owned OTRACO buses are mainly found in and around the capital of Bujumbura. Total road miles are 3,666; but only 249 of them are paved. There are six airfields in the country, only one with a permanent surface.

The border with the DRC is closed temporarily to prevent Hutu rebels from crossing into Burundi. Route 1, the main highway linking Bujumbura with the rest of the country, is frequently closed because of land mines placed by Hutu rebels, usually northeast of the capital. The road is also the site of frequent ambushes. More than 125 people, mostly civilians, were killed in more than 20 ambushes early in 1996.

There is an eight-mile cordon sanitaire, or clean line, around the city of Bujumbura as well as a midnight curfew. Life may go on as normal during the day, but the killing begins at night. As many as 100 people die every week in Burundi, mostly because of attacks by Hutu insurgents from their bases in the refugee camps in the DRC and Tanzania, and because of army reprisals against local Hutus.