Teachers end strike

Teachers in Burundi have agreed to go back to work, thereby ending their nationwide strike over conditions, which began on 13 May.

"Trade union officials told the media that teachers living close to their schools would return to teaching on Friday, and those farther away on Monday," the state-owned Agence burundaise de Presse, reported.

Under the deal, signed on Thursday, the teachers' unions and the Ministry of Education undertook to implement the measures agreed on, and set up commissions to discuss on outstanding issues, according Radio Burundi, one such issue being the lack of career advancement. They also agreed that financial and administrative sanctions would not be imposed on the strikers.

During the strike, internally displaced persons (IDPs) in some parts of the war-scarred country were allowed to shelter in schools. Emmanuel Kabaragi, the administrator of Kabezi Commune, Bujumbura Rural Province, said on Wednesday that when the strike ended IDPs would have to vacate classrooms each morning to allow for teaching activities, and return to sleep.

The strike had threatened to plunge the country into deeper economic ruin. In addition to the need to end the war, and shore up the collapsing economy, the strike was perhaps the most acute problem facing the three-year transitional power-sharing government inaugurated on 1 November.