The story of Burundi’s heroes is one of humanity against all odds. It is a story of courage in the midst of crisis, of defiance in the face of danger, of compassion in a sea of callousness. When everyone around them told them to accept the status quo of blood and brutality, these Burundian heroes chose to listen to their internal voices. It meant risking their own lives, and those of their family in some cases, to save that of another. For many, it meant ongoing danger and difficulty long after the moment of their act of courage. It was a moment for which they had not prepared or planned. Susan Koscis writes about these heroes in the latest edition of the Peace and Conflict Monitor.

One of Burundi's ecological jewels, Lake Gacamirinda, is in danger of disappearing. The circumstances of this problem provide a case study in what can happen when human and environmental factors combine to affect a natural resource. Philippe Njoni, Governor of the north-eastern Kirundo province where the lake is located, says the factors causing it to dry up include the drought that ravaged Burundi between 1998 and 2001.

Secondary and primary schools across Burundi reopened on Monday after teachers suspended a strike that began on 5 January. "We accepted to return to work for the love of Burundi's children, we wanted to prove our goodwill unlike the government which, instead of resolving the teachers' problems, complicates it," Philbert Ngenzahayo, a representative of the National Council of Secondary Education Staff, said on Monday. However, he said the teachers would resume the strike if the government refused to accede to their demands for better wages and housing allowances.

Burundian gendarmes arrested on Tuesday the leaders of the two main teachers' unions in the country after they held a meeting with striking teachers in the capital, Bujumbura, to evaluate the stoppage that began countrywide on 5 January. Upon their arrest, the representative of the Union of Burundi Educational Workers, Eulalie Nibizi; and the leader of the Free Union of Burundi Education, Adolphe Wakana, were taken to a jail of the government's intelligence services, known as the Documentation Nationale; Wakana's deputy, Chantal Nahishakiye, told IRIN.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been working in Burundi since 1996, implementing humanitarian relief activities in water and sanitation, infrastructure rehabilitation, distribution of non-food items, education support, and assistance to vulnerable youth. In 2004, IRC Burundi is consolidating programming in two sectors - Environmental Health and Youth - making an effort to create programmatic and geographic synergies to the maximum extent possible.

Rumonge District, in Burundi’s southern province of Bururi, has registered 93 cases of cholera resulting in four deaths since January, health services have reported. The director of Rumonge hospital, Dr Innocent Ntamavukiro, told IRIN on Wednesday that 18 people were hospitalised at his facility. The majority of patients are from Kizuka subcounty, about 10 km from Rumonge centre. Other affected areas include Kanyenkoko and Iteba, two suburbs of Rumonge urban centre, with a majority of Muslim residents.

Fresh fighting between a rebel movement headed by Agathon Rwasa and the regular army has displaced thousands of people in Bujumbura Rural Province, a local administrator said. The administrator of Kanyosha Commune in Bujumbura Rural, Ernest Ndabakeneye, told IRIN Wednesday that the entire population of the Muyira and Ruyaga sub-counties had fled their homes following Monday's battle between the forces of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) and the army.

Burundi’s ethnic civil war is nearing a conclusion, according to the country’s president, Domitien Ndayizeye. Now entering its 11th year, the conflict has killed at least 300,000 people and forced more than 1 million to flee their homes. Speaking to journalists in Paris on Jan. 16, Ndayizeye said his country has reached “the point of no return on the road to peace and security.” Although hopes for an end to the fighting are high, the humanitarian situation is no less alarming than before and the transitional government and international community are still not doing nearly enough to “defuse” the “land time bomb,” according to a report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank.

The Government of Burundi and the international community should take urgent action to stop widespread sexual violence, including rape, against women in Burundi, Amnesty International urged in a new report entitled Burundi: Rape - the hidden rights abuse. The growing incidence of rape has been exacerbated by widespread discrimination against women, and its consequences aggravated by poverty, population displacement and a failing health care system. The perpetrators are largely members of the Burundian armed forces and armed political groups, as well as armed criminal gangs who not only rob but also rape.

Burundi may not hold elections by the end of November as stipulated by the peace accord signed in Arusha, a government official has warned. Foreign Affairs Minister Terence Sinunguruza says conditions necessary for a free and fair poll have not been met by the transitional government.

The government of Burundi demobilised on Friday 29 child soldiers, who had served as porters in the country's regular army. The children, aged 13 to 18 years, were demobilised at the paratroop barracks in the capital, Bujumbura, in the presences of representatives of the Ministry of Defence, the UN Children's Fund as well as those from the national Demobilisation, Reintegration and Prevention Project, which targets child soldiers. Although the demobilised children served as porters, they also had the task of observing enemy movements, for which they earned the nickname "Doriya", which loosely translates as spy or sentry.

The transitional government of Burundi should ensure that the country has a new constitution as well as an electoral law to enable it to move to democracy within the time stipulated in the 2000 Arusha peace accord, the president of the accord's Implementation Monitoring Committee, Berhanu Dinka, said on Monday. Dinka, who is also the UN Secretary-General's Representative to Burundi, made the remarks when he opened the 17th session of the committee in the capital, Bujumbura. This session is expected to last five days.

You can help encourage the President of Burundi to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court without delay. Please send appeals by mail or fax, preferably in French, to President Domitien Ndayizeye at the address available by clicking on the web link below.

At least 30 fighters have been killed in fighting between the last active Hutu rebel group and government forces in Burundi, an army official has said. Burundian army chief Germain Niyoyankana said dozens of weapons were recovered from Forces for National Liberation (FNL) rebels in the clashes.

Amnesty International has called on all states who participated at a recent donor conference for Burundi to make sure that there are sufficient funds for human rights promotion and protection. In two documents, 'Burundi: Commitment to Human Rights is Essential, An appeal to participants of the international donor conference', and its background briefing, 'Burundi: A Critical Time', published to coincide with the donor conference (13-14 January), Amnesty International outlined a human rights agenda for international donors and the Government of Burundi involved in the country's peace and reconstruction efforts as well as providing up-to-date information on the critical human rights issues which must be addressed.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has sent an emergency team from Switzerland to Burundi to explore the possibilities of opening up more field offices in preparation for the possible return of hundreds of thousands of refugees now in Tanzania, the agency reported on Tuesday. The agency reported that the team, comprising a head of operations, a finance and operations officer and a telecommunications/information technology officer, would join a field staff safety adviser. They will travel to areas bordering Tanzania "to assess the situation, review the needs on the ground and prepare for the possible deployment of additional staff".

At 24, a single mother, Marie - not her real name - could have expected a better deal in life. But she was given no choice: while working as a housemaid in Kinindo, a residential suburb of the capital, Bujumbura, Marie was raped and subsequently found herself pregnant. Many cases of rape go unreported in Burundi. Lucie Nyamarushwa, a human rights coordinator with the Iteka rights group, attributes this to victims' ignorance of their rights and the procedures available to prosecute perpetrators.

Twelve Burundians were killed when a large group of gunmen singing "Alleluia" launched a night raid on a village outside the capital, a government official said on Monday. The latest killings underscored the persistence of violence in Burundi during a visit by President Domitien Ndayizeye to Europe in search of donor funds to reward progress in ending more than a decade of civil war.

Burundi's Ministry of Health launched last Thursday a vaccination campaign against hepatitis B and meningitis, targeting a total of 275,662 babies aged up to 11 months. "The objective is to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with chronic infections of the hepatitis B virus, including cirrhosis and other complicated diseases such as meningitis related to haemophilic influenza type B," Dr Jean Kamana, the minister of health, said when he launched the free-of-charge campaign in the capital, Bujumbura.

"Saturday morning, after a night of hell under bombs, rockets and hails of bullets, I manage to get to the airport. I meet a long column of soldiers. A whole battalion, it seems to me, goes up to the front at Gikungu, East of Bujumbura. God, how young they are! Teenagers. Sad. Drawn faces. Without the fighters’ banter that is seen with other soldiers in wartime," writes Chris Harahagazwe in the latest edition of the Peace and Conflict Monitor, after spending some time in Bujumbura in July last year.