The European Union will give Burundi, which has been rocked by a year of unrest, direct support for health and nutrition programs worth 55 million euros ($62.4 million), the continental bloc said.
An initiative worth 40 million euros will boost access to health care, while a rural development and nutrition program is worth 15 million euros, the European Commission said Friday in a statement on its website. The EU in March said it was freezing 322 million euros of support to Burundi, but that aid directed at the country’s people wouldn’t be affected.
The landlocked East African nation has been roiled by violence since President Pierre Nkurunziza decided in April 2015 to stand for re-election, a move his opponents said was unconstitutional. As many as 1,155 people may have been killed in the crisis’ first year, more than double the figure estimated by the United Nations, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, run by the University of Sussex in England, said Thursday.
-Bloomberg
