After quarantining cattle for a week which are meant to be slaughtered for beef in Burundi, this Wednesday the country has officially resumed the consumption of beef after imposing a blanket ban in June.
Burundian government had banned the consumption of beef, goat and mutton due to the outbreak of the Rift Valley Fever.
“Honestly speaking we the beef consumers are glad about the lift of ban,” said Celestin Mateka one of the Facebook users.
“The ban on beef consumption has been affecting us badly .But today we have slaughtered hundreds of cows as we used to initially and the current measure gives us hope and now we can meet our family needs,” says Eric Habiyaremye a butcher in Bujumbura.
Besides, some citizens are looking forward to the administrators’ close follow up to ensure that butchers are not taking the advantage of the situation by raising prices or slaughtering cows which have not been isolated.
“Administrators should try their best to get as many cows to slaughter as possible otherwise butchers will take advantage of the situation and raise the price,” said Raphael Ngenzahayo.
For Karim Niyonsaba if things remain the way they are, probabilities are that illegal slaughtering will be real.
“Honestly speaking slaughtering less than 20 cows in a town like Bujumbura will take us into smuggling in meat.”
According to Deo Guide Rurema the minister of agriculture and livestock said that “following this Rift Valley fever disease, measures had been taken to limit the spread of this disease, including the closure of cattle and ruminant markets and their slaughtering.”
It should be noted that farmers and butchers were grounded to respect the ban of the slaughtering per county, as it started on May 26th, 2022 in Cibitoke province.