By Olivier | PROJECT LEADER
Save Life Make Difference
Bujumbura Bururndi
savelifemakedifference@gmail.com
sub : Project report
Six people were killed by lightning Thursday afternoon in a commune in northern Burundi, Anadolu Agency learned Friday from a local police source.
"The six people who died were located in three houses on Nyagatovu hill, while six others were seriously injured," the provincial police commissioner in Ngozi, Edouard Mukoko, told the local newspaper Jimbere on Friday.
According to the police commissioner, the injured were taken "to the Mashitsi Health Center," near the scene of the tragedy.
In recent months, Burundi, in the midst of its rainy season, has been hit by unusually violent storms, accompanied by lightning strikes that can sometimes have devastating effects.
Last March, four people were killed by lightning in the commune of Buganda in the northwest of the country.
Climate-related disasters are also a national concern in Burundi.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), floods, landslides and other disasters affected 13 of Burundi's 18 provinces between October 2023 and October 2024.
A very intense and brief thunderstorm, lasting about twenty minutes, caused the disaster, according to the administrator of the Nyanza-Lac commune, located some 155 km south of the capital, Bujumbura. Lightning struck the seventh-grade class at Gasange Middle School, where dozens of students were crowded. Seven middle school students were killed instantly and 51 others injured, explains Prudence Kabura.
On Tuesday, two people tending a herd and nine cows were struck by lightning in the Gisuru commune. And two days earlier, four people were killed and nine others injured by lightning, this time striking a Pentecostal church during Sunday services in the same commune in eastern Burundi.
Since these cases have multiplied, some have not hesitated to exploit ancestral fears linked to a phenomenon considered supernatural in Burundi, especially since these storms now occur during the short dry season.
Some evangelical pastors do not hesitate to speak of divine punishment, and in some regions, the population attacks supposed witches. The administrator of Nyanza-Lac, for his part, is calling on the Burundian government to simply install lightning rods in all the country's schools.
Installing a Early Streamer Emission Lightning Rod protects a building (or area) from the direct effects of lightning. For effective protection, a complete lightning protection system must be installed that complies with the NF C 17-102 standard of 2011. Follow our advice for installing a Early Streamer Emission Lightning Rod in full compliance.
The role of a Early Streamer Emission (ESE) lightning rod is to capture lightning strikes in a given area. For this to be possible, the rod must be positioned at the highest point in the area to be protected and be connected to ground. The rod should be installed at least 2 meters above any structure. For an ESE, it is often considered to increase its height to capture lightning higher and cover a larger area.
To effectively install an ESE, you must know the level of protection required to protect the site in question. To do this, you can contact our design office or use IONEXPERT 4000.
Save life make differnce need your help to acheive his project
Bujumbura
save life make diffrence
12/03/2025
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