{"id":34827,"date":"2017-05-27T11:45:11","date_gmt":"2017-05-27T11:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/burundi-orders-couples-to-wed-amid-drive-to\/"},"modified":"2017-05-27T11:45:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T11:45:00","slug":"burundi-orders-couples-to-wed-amid-drive-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/burundi-orders-couples-to-wed-amid-drive-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Burundi orders couples to wed amid drive to ‘moralise society’"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Cohabiting couples in Burundi have until the end of the year to get married or face legal consequences.}<\/p>\n

The government order comes after President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a campaign “to moralise society”.<\/p>\n

A government spokesman said a crackdown on informal relationships was needed to combat a population explosion.<\/p>\n

He said too many schoolgirls were getting pregnant and men were taking advantage of women by cohabiting with several simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Burundi has been in crisis since 2015 when Mr Nkurunziza, a born-again Christian, announced he would run for a controversial third term.<\/p>\n

{{‘We want order’}}<\/p>\n

Interior ministry spokesman Terence Ntahiraja told AFP news agency that church and state-sanctioned weddings were the solution to the country’s population explosion – and a patriotic duty.<\/p>\n

“We want Burundians to understand that everyone is responsible for his life, we want order in this country,” he said.<\/p>\n

“All this is done within the framework of the patriotic training programme,” he said, referring to an initiative launched by President Nkurunziza.<\/p>\n

It is not clear exactly what sanctions those not tying the knot will face.<\/p>\n

However, one farmer quoted by AFP said local officials had already threatened him and his partner with a fine and said any child born out of wedlock would not qualify for free education or medical treatment.<\/p>\n

The farmer, named only as Pierre, said he had not married because he could not afford the bride price demanded by his partner’s family.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people have since died since Mr Nkurunziza launched a bid for a third term. But the country had been relatively calm in recent months.<\/p>\n

\"Burundi<\/figure>\n

Source:BBC <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Cohabiting couples in Burundi have until the end of the year to get married or face legal consequences.} The government order comes after President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a campaign “to moralise society”. A government spokesman said a crackdown on informal relationships was needed to combat a population explosion. He said too many schoolgirls were getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-34827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34827"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=34827"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=34827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}