Regional business with Burundi has been slowing at an alarming rate in the past weeks amid persistent protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid to run for a third term in office.

When The New Times visited the Nemba One Stop Border Post, on Thursday, the usually active border crossing was relatively dormant.

Besides a visiting team of regional experts who were visiting to assess operations at the border post, immigration and customs officers were attending to very few travelers.

Shops, forex bureaus and tea houses operating at the border were open but no clients streamed in and out.

"Things are not good today. I am contemplating closing. I am wasting time here,” said a forex bureau dealer who preferred anonymity.

Four of his colleagues sat about indulging in chit-chat outside the small structure that houses two forex bureaus.On the Burundian side of the border, forex bureau agents were disheartened when they learnt that this reporter was not bringing business but sought information. They refused to talk.

The cause of the state of affairs, apparently, is that most of the buses and the heavy trucks usually criss-crossing the Kigali-Bujumbura route halted operations as owners cautiously keep an eye on events in Burundi, hoping the situation in the East African nation calms.

Political events in the capital Bujumbura, and the entire country, took a dip when, on April 26, Burundi’s ruling CNDD-FDD political party picked President Nkurunziza as its candidate for what would be his third term in office, two months to the June 26 presidential elections.

Simmering anxiety of the likelihood of Nkurunziza running again took a turn for the worse upon the announcement, with hundreds of Burundians taking to the streets to let their disapproval known.

The protests have since engulfed the city and claimed the lives of at least 18 people with many more maimed.

As of Friday, 25,313 Burundian refugees, including 13,294 children, had sought refuge in Rwanda. More continue to cross into Rwanda on a daily average of 100.

At Nemba border, Fred Mutembe, the senior Rwandan customs officer and border manager, told this newspaper that the border, which normally has roughly six to 10 heavy trucks crossing, per day, now sees two to three trucks daily.

"These trucks carry merchandise. If business in Burundi is paralysed, then truck movement is less. Even ‘Jaguar bus’ didn’t work today [Thursday].”

When this reporter arrived, only two heavy trucks had crossed from Burundi.

Ramadhan Minani, a driver of the a Burundian registered truck loaded with oranges, said: "The situation home is tricky. On my way back into the city, I must be more cautious. I make calls to know which route or location of the city is safe for me before I proceed.”

On Tuesday, Mathew Bizimana, the president of Burundi Shippers Council, told The New Times that there was no doubt that the political situation was affecting business and that things got out of hand towards the end of the previous week.

"The logistics chain, traders, transporters and others are affected. I think transporters are afraid to enter Burundi,” Bizimana said.

Say no to violence

A section of the business community says the current political crisis in neighboring Burundi is having a serious negative impact on trade and has urged stakeholders far and wide to be hands-on about reversing the state of affairs.

John Bosco Rusagara, the president of Rwanda Shippers Council, advised the region to rally, as one, and help address the violence in neighbouring Burundi.

"We cannot prevent an earthquake in Nepal but we can stop the violence in Burundi. Let us all rise with the same voice and say no to violence as a region. That’s my advice. Where there is violence, there is no business.

Burundi is affecting trade and everything else,” he said.

Abdul Ndaru, the vice-chairperson of the Rwandan long distance drivers association, said that when trouble started brewing in Burundi, they decided to play it safe until things return to normal.

Rwanda is Burundi’s gateway to the East African ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.

Rwanda exports food items, including milk and Irish potatoes, and some construction materials to Burundi. Such exports earn Rwanda about $9.3 million worth of exports, according to 2013 figures from the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Ndaru, proprietor of TransAfrica Limited, a transport and logistics company, which was transporting World Food Programme (WFP) shipments to Burundi, says trucks transporting cement, fuel and other supplies stopped.

The association which, on a daily average, would send 10 trucks across to Burundi, stopped the truck movement early last month, he said.

"We put a halt to the trucks’ movement around April 10. It was the last time our vehicles crossed to Burundi. We are now monitoring events there closely hoping things normalise. It [Burundi crisis] is affecting trade 100 per cent, no doubt about that,” Ndaru said.

Buses cut operations

On a Bujumbura bound Volcano Bus, last week, a Rwandan who works in Bujumbura said that passenger service buses come to Rwanda full but often return to Bujumbura half empty.

"Last Sunday, we were four on the bus but now we are 14,” said the passenger.

Mariam Kwizera, a staffer at Volcano buses offices in Nyabugogo, Kigali, said they had in the past two weeks, diverted most of their fleet to upcountry routes.

They had reduced the daily buses to Burundi to three from eight.

On Saturday, Ali Sebudandi, manager of Jaguar Executive Coach Kigali offices, confirmed they had temporarily suspended operations to Burundi until they are sure the country is safe for business.

"We can’t go to a place where there are violent protests. This is a decision taken considering the safety of our customers and staff. There is tension there, roads are blocked and we just can’t risk. If the situation improves, we shall resume,” he said.

Efforts to contain crisis

Over the past two months, the political crisis has worsened with hundreds, including senior politicians, fleeing the country.

More than 50,000 Burundians have fled to Rwanda, Tanzania and the DR Congo, in the past few weeks, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Tanzania has over 17,600 refugees and an estimated 8,000 are in DR Congo.

On Saturday, about 100 Burundians living in Nairobi took to the streets of the Kenyan capital in a peaceful protest, just five days before the East African Community heads of state hold an extraordinary session in Tanzania to forge a way of calming the growing political tension in Burundi.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw