| THE Archbishop of Burundi, the Most Revd Bernard Ntahoturi, visiting the UK last week, spoke of the effects of climate change on his African nation.
Archbishop Ntahoturi was in London as a guest of the aid agency Christian Aid, which has projects in Burundi. He spoke of the devastating impact of climate change on a country in which 90 per cent of the population is reliant on agriculture.
“It used to always rain in September, but this year the rains just came one week ago in November, and we have had a time of drought. We used to have eight months of rain, but we now only have five-and-a-half months, and that affects the whole population of Burundi. Even when it rains, there’s a lot of flooding; housing has been destroyed, and people killed,” he said.
He called on world leaders gathering at the climate conference in Copenhagen next month to draw up a fair and binding deal that would include capacity-building measures for developing countries.
“Climate change is not an environmental issue, but a justice issue. As someone from Africa, I would make a very strong call to industrialised world leaders to find the political will to make these difficult decisions, as it affects not just Africa but the whole planet,” he said.
Archbishop Ntahoturi, who studied at Ridley Hall theological college in Cambridge, also spoke of wounds still experienced by many of Burundi’s eight million people after 15 years of civil war, which ended in 2005.
Unlike the “explosion” of violence in neighbouring Rwanda, which was picked up by the world media, he says that Burundi’s civil war was more of a “slow suffering”.
He said the Anglican Church of Burundi, which has about 600,000 members, is involved in the peace and reconciliation process, telling people they can “live peacefully with their neighbour”, and that “conflicts can be solved without fighting”. He acknowledged that the wounds will take a long time to heal.
The Archbishop also called for more international investment in the country, which has natural resources such as tea and coffee, to help create jobs.
“People are very excited about the future and tired of war. But Burundi needs support from the international community so that we can benefit from the peace. Many people are unemployed, which creates concern, and there is still insecurity in some parts, mainly from people with arms they haven’t handed in.”
The Archbishop estimates that two million people were internally displaced by the war, while a further million fled to neighbouring countries, such as Tanzania. A quarter of these people have since been reintegrated into the country.
Divisions in the Anglican Communion, over the issue of homosexuality, for example, have also had an effect on Burundi.
Archbishop Ntahoturi said that “they were addressing these issues, but not in the same way” as other parts of the Communion. He said that they were on the more conservative end of the spectrum, and that the Church had signed the GAFCON Jerusalem Declaration.
The Archbishop has urged people in the UK to join the climate-change rally in London on 5 December.
Christian Aid is on involved in projects in six parts of Burundi: carrying out reforestation; improving water catchment; and developing sustainable farming systems.
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