BURUNDI: Nkurunziza’s adviser rejects donated French donkeys

An adviser to Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza has described a donation of 10 donkeys by the French embassy to villagers in Gitega province an “insult to the nation”, news agency AFP reports. The agriculture ministry ordered the animals, bought from Tanzania as part of a local NGO’s project to help women and children transport agricultural […]

An adviser to Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza has described a donation of 10 donkeys by the French embassy to villagers in Gitega province an “insult to the nation”, news agency AFP reports.

The agriculture ministry ordered the animals, bought from Tanzania as part of a local NGO’s project to help women and children transport agricultural products, water or wood, to be quarantined.

Agriculture Minister Deo Guide Rurema asked a local administrator to “facilitate the immediate withdrawal of all donkeys that have been distributed… without respecting the technical procedure of the distribution of exotic animals”.

Gabby Bugaga, spokesman for the Senate president, tweeted that the French were “taking us for donkeys”.

“Be honest, is the donkey a symbol of a quality – or a flaw?” he wrote.

French Ambassador Laurent Delahousse has however praised the animals calling them a “Land Cruiser of the animal kingdom”.