BUJUMBURA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The cooperation between Burundi and China dating back to 1963 and further reinforced in 2000 through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has been fruitful, a senior Burundian official told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

"The cooperation between Burundi and China is very fruitful because it is win-win cooperation. China brings financial, diplomatic and political support and Burundi does reciprocity in the diplomatic and political sectors," said Ines-Sonia Niyubahwe, spokesperson of the Burundian Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation Ministry.

According to Niyubahwe, Burundi has taken advantage of multiple support in the context of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) since 2000.

In the farming sector, China notably deployed high-level experts in agriculture including agronomists and interpreters in 2012 to help modernize Burundi's agriculture.

"Those Chinese experts have various specializations including veterinary medicine, fisheries, agriculture mechanization, rice growing and fertilization," she said, adding that those Chinese experts have contributed to the fight against hunger and the eradication of poverty in Burundi.

Niyubahwe indicated that the China-funded pilot farming research center on rice located in the province of Bubanza, western Burundi, operational since 2015, is contributing to the fight against poverty.

Regarding the energy sector, China has funded the construction of a hydropower plant on the river Ruzibazi in the province of Bujumbura. The construction of the plant kicked off on Sept. 20, 2019, and has reached a satisfactory step.

"In addition to the Ruzibazi hydropower plant project, China signed an agreement to provide technical assistance for the operation of three hydropower plants namely Mugere, Ruvyironza and Gikonge," said Niyubahwe.

According to her, China also agreed to train Burundian technicians, to rehabilitate those dams and to partially provide spare parts for those dams.

In the medical sector, Niyubahwe said the cooperation between Burundi and China is very good with the deployment of missions of Chinese medical experts like ophthalmologists who treat patients suffering from cataracts.

Other Chinese medical specialists in radiology, surgery, and laboratory medical equipment were also sent to Burundi.

"China has also contributed a lot in the fight against the current COVID-19 pandemic through providing Burundi with medical and protection kits against the pandemic," she said.

"We hope that cooperation will continue to increase in order to reach a historic level," she added. - Xinhua

Photo Anadolu Agency

The president of South Sudan on Thursday voiced support for Ethiopia in its conflict with ethnic Tigray rebels and what he called foreign interference in the Horn of Africa country.

Concluding a half-day visit to his country's eastern neighbor after a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Salva Kiir condemned an attack by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) that he said sparked a months-long conflict with the government, according to Ahmed's press secretary, Billene Seyoum.

"The focus of the visit was to discuss key bilateral and regional issues of mutual concern," Seyoum said in a press briefing.

"Of particular interest was strengthening economic ties and joint infrastructure development," she said on the visit by Kiir and a delegation including Foreign Minister Beatrice Wani-Noah.

The visit came on the same day that the UN Security Council is scheduled to meet on Ethiopia on the situation in the northern Tigray region where the TPLF has been making advances, including into the adjacent Afar region.

Kiir also congratulated Ethiopia on the successful conduct of parliamentary elections in June and its progress in constructing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the on Blue Nile river.

Egypt has been opposed to the construction of GERD saying it would significantly reduce its “traditional share” of the Nile waters while Sudan has been expressing concerns related to the safety of its own dams downstream.

Ethiopia, for its part, says that no significant harm would befall the downstream countries and it “direly needs” electricity for national development.

Heavy battles are being fought in Ethiopia on numerous fronts, despite a June 29 unilateral cease-fire declared by the government and the ensuing withdrawal of its troops from the northernmost region of Tigray.

The TPLF ruled Ethiopia for 27 years until 2018. Last November, its forces raided federal army bases stationed in Tigray, including in the capital Mekelle, killing soldiers and looting sizable military hardware. Consequently, the Ethiopian government launched a sweeping operation to quell the insurgency.

Over the past two months alone, more than 500,000 people have been displaced from the Amhara and Afar regional states due to TPLF's incursions, Billene noted. - Addis Getachew, Anadolu Agency

Breaking constitutions is often easier than making them. Kenya’s first two presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi, took a hatchet to the one negotiated at independence from Britain in 1963.

By the time the butchery ended, Kenya was a one-party state run by untouchable kleptocrats. Fixing the damage took decades. Under international and domestic pressure, Moi repealed the provision banning all parties but his own in 1991. But it took 19 more years of bitter struggle before Kenya again had a constitution worthy of the name.

In recent years the hatchets have been out again. Kenya’s politicians finally accepted a new dispensation after post-election bloodshed claimed more than 1,000 lives in 2007-08. But the chastening effect of the violence did not last long.

After another election controversy, in 2017, Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s president (and Jomo’s son) joined forces with Raila Odinga, his rival-turned-sidekick, to push for yet another constitutional overhaul under the sweetly named Building Bridges Initiative (bbi). On August 20th Kenya’s Court of Appeal thwarted the initiative and granted the constitution from 2010 a reprieve. The Economist