The delays to the Maragarazi–Musongati section concern compensation documentation and an outstanding African Development Bank no-objection request, rather than the availability of compensation funds. Although the funds have been allocated and are available at Burundi’s public treasury, the additional witness-signature requirements must be incorporated into the compensation forms before the process can advance.
The 102 km Burundian section forms part of the 282 km Uvinza–Musongati railway linking Tanzania and Burundi. The Prime Minister’s one-week deadline for revising the forms, together with his request for an urgent AfDB response, identifies the immediate administrative steps required to address the constraints delaying the actual start of works on the section.
Burundi’s Prime Minister, Nestor Ntahontuye, has told officials to revise the compensation forms for people affected by the Maragarazi–Musongati section of the Uvinza–Musongati railway and to finalise them within one week, so that works can advance. He also asked the African Development Bank (AfDB) to give urgent attention to a no-objection request that remains unanswered. According to the project coordinator, the forms and the request are the two main constraints delaying the actual start of works on the section.
Ntahontuye gave the instructions at a progress meeting at Ntarehouse palace on 27 October 2026, attended by the heads of the contracted companies, senior officials from Burundi and Tanzania, experts, financial partners and ministers.
The 282 km railway runs 180 km from Uvinza to Maragarazi in Tanzania and 102 km from Maragarazi to Musongati in Burundi. It forms part of the multinational Uvinza–Musongati–Gitega standard gauge project, launched in June 2025 and described by the Primature as the largest railway project Burundi has undertaken.
The Prime Minister noted that the funds for compensation have been planned and are available at the public treasury and asked why payments remained blocked. The coordinator of the Maragarazi–Musongati section, Aron Niyungeko, said the difficulty lay in the AfDB’s requirements for the forms. They previously carried the signatures of the affected person and local administrators, but the bank’s new guidelines require the signatures of two witnesses chosen by the beneficiary. Ntahontuye instructed the officials responsible to add the two witnesses and set the one-week deadline.
