2 February 2008
Bujumbura — Many people were wounded today in a stampede in Kayogoro commune of Makamba province. Traders in Kayogoro commune were on strike after the local administration decided to up the taxes on food commodities. The police, in their attempt to clear up the road which protesters had blocked, shot in the air, causing a stampede. The number of the wounded is still unknown.
Traders are opposed to the increase in taxes that the administrator and the communal council recently approved in order to improve the finances of this commune. The rise 2 franc rise in the tax on a kilogramme of flour caused traders of this commodity commonly known as "Kambaranga" to start a protest on 31 January 2008 demanding the local administration to withdraw the measure.
The rise in taxes at Kayogoro will affect the price of cassava flour in all parts of Burundi. Cassava bread is the staple food for many in the slums of the city of Bujumbura. The mosaic-like disease that hit cassava plantations in the whole country forced Burundians to import it from Uganda.
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