WHO permanent team suddenly expelled from Burundi

Text by: Esdras Ndikumana Follow

The head of Burundian diplomacy has just sent to the office of the World Health Organization a note verbale which has been leaked in the press and which declares the representative and three other WHO officials in Burundi "persona non grata".

Publicity

A month ago, the WHO representative in Burundi and officials from his office had already narrowly escaped an eviction. Gitega had criticized them at the time for its "interference" in its management of the Covid-19 pandemic. This time, it's done. A spectacular gesture that takes place while the government is accused of opaque management of the coronavirus pandemic, less than a week from a triple ballot, including a much anticipated presidential election.

The WHO representative in Burundi, Walter Kazadi Mulombo and the three officials from his office will not escape this time. Gitega gave them until tomorrow May 15 to leave Burundian territory, even if the authorities know that the Melchior Ndadaye airport in Bujumbura is closed to all air traffic as part of its fight against Covid-19.

How are they going to do it? No one knows for the moment, but the entire WHO team in charge of the response to the coronavirus is expelled from Burundi, unceremoniously.

"Little diplomatic"

Jean-Pierre Mulunda was the technical coordinator of the response to Covid-19, Ruhana Mihindi was in charge of the program against communicable diseases while Professor Daniel Parzy is an expert in molecular biology. It is the latter who trained the local team responsible for the response against Ebola, then against the coronavirus since the beginning of the year.

The Burundian government “ brutally pushes them out. It is very unfriendly and not very diplomatic, ”regretted a diplomat based in Bujumbura, especially since the representative was going to leave this country definitively in less than a month.

But Gitega didn't care, even if the WHO office in Burundi, completely excluded from the response to the Covid-19 for more than a month, kept a low profile.
The government had tried to expel the same WHO officials at the time, but it had backed down. What has changed this time? Sources speak of a " pretext ", invoking a lead linked to a contract on malaria drugs. 

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