Many pregnant and breastfeeding women met in August 2024 in the northern neighborhoods of Bujumbura town such as Mutakura, Buterere, Ngagara and Cibitoke say they do not eat enough to be able to breastfeed their babies properly. They say they are facing a situation of increased poverty and unprecedented high cost of living. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

A mother complains.

« We said yesterday that Burundi is a poor country, but today we can say that it is a very, very poor country…. », these are the words of a mother of an infant of one month who lives in Buterere and who cannot get breast milk for her baby, because she cannot feed herself well as recommended to a breastfeeding mother.

She reveals she only eats once a day.

She has two other grandchildren to feed. They also eat only once a day.

The head of the family says he is overwhelmed by the situation.

« We only have three children but it is really very difficult for us to find what to eat. My salary today only pays the rent, while my wife, a vegetable seller, does everything possible but we are really overwhelmed. May our leaders take measures that can get us out of this situation,” he laments.

Another woman, a civil servant, recounts what she experiences.

“Today life is too hard, I must give artificial milk to my child because of these travel problems linked to lack of fuel but I am overwhelmed,” she laments.

“The artificial milk we give to our babies to replace breast milk when we are away now costs fifty thousand. In just three days, the child finishes the box,” she further complains.

She adds that before, she would wake up early to have breakfast and look for how she can leave breast milk to the child to minimize the expense of artificial milk, but today it is difficult.

First, there is the shortage of sugar and then the rise in prices of basic necessities.

Many women met in the Mutakura, Buterere, Ngagara and Cibitoke neighborhoods who have babies share the same feeling.

They all say that life has become very complicated and that, as a result, breastfeeding women cannot find enough to eat.

Their infants are collateral victims of today’s high cost of living.

According to them, a breastfeeding mother should eat well for the well-being of her infant, but today, this is unfortunately not the case.

We just eat to survive with the little we can find, they say, resignedly.

A nutrition specialist explains that this situation is very worrying.

He says that pregnant and breastfeeding mothers as well as young children must have a healthy and balanced diet, but that this has become almost impossible with the current situation of poverty.

He asks the country’s leaders to do everything to change this situation of poverty and, as the authorities themselves say: « that every mouth finds something to eat. »

“It is very deplorable to hear that a breastfeeding mother is only able to eat once a day when she has to breastfeed her child more than 12 times during the day. They say that the State is benevolent (Mvyeyi), it really proves to us that it is true….people are dying of hunger and pregnant, lactating mothers and children are the first victims of this difficult situation of today,” pleads the nutritionist.