Burundi
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- Stressed (IPC Phase 2) outcomes are expected to persist in the Northern and Eastern Lowlands and the Imbo Plains livelihood zones throughout the October to January main lean season. Households will be highly dependent on markets from October-January, as they have exhausted food stocks from the 2025 Season B harvest and the Season A crop is not yet ready for harvest. Limited opportunities for agricultural labor, driven by below-average rainfall countrywide due to ongoing La Niña conditions, are driving atypically low income. Income is also constrained by restricted cross-border access with Rwanda, which remains closed due to political tensions, and limited trade opportunities with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) due to ongoing conflict in eastern DRC. Below-average income, coupled with atypically high food prices driven by reduced imports and fuel shortages, are restricting households’ ability to afford food during this seasonal period of high dependence on markets for food needs.
- Staple food prices are generally cheaper and stable compared to last year but persist above the five-year averages. Countrywide, maize prices, which are partially stabilized through strategic stockpiling by the National Agency for the Management of Food Security Stocks (ANAGESSA), averaged 15 percent above five-year average prices in October. Prices for beans, potatoes, and sweet potatoes countrywide averaged 31 percent, 64 percent, and 95 percent above their five-year averages, respectively. The elevated prices are mainly driven by increased transport costs linked to fuel and diesel shortages.
- The ongoing Season C harvest — which occurs in marshland areas and typically contributes around 15 percent of annual crop production between October and November — is above average. This is due to unseasonal rainfall in August 2025, coupled with government and partner support, including agricultural extension services, fertilizer and improved seed subsidies, and irrigation promotion. The harvest is anticipated to cover food needs for roughly three weeks, helping to slightly ease lean season impacts, especially for middle and better-off households in the Buragane, Highlands, Humid Plateaus, and East Arid Plateaus livelihood zones, where most own marshland plots.
- As anticipated in the October 2025 Food Security Outlook report, delayed and below-average rainfall since September, attributed to the prevailing La Niña conditions, has driven below-average crop development. Current vegetation conditions are underdeveloped for this point in the season, and the harvest of key 2026 Season A crops such as maize, rice, sorghum, cassava, sweet potatoes, and bananas are anticipated to be below average. The poor rainfall will also result in atypically low availability of grazing pasture for livestock.
- In October, WFP provided food and cash assistance to around 77,500 refugees and asylum seekers (mainly from the DRC); 1,860 Burundian returnees; 17,500 individuals affected by climate shocks in the Imbo Plains; 12,650 pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls; and about 16,700 malnourished children. Due to funding limitations, distributions covered only 70 percent of the minimum daily kilocalorie needs (2,100 kcal/person/day), though this marks an increase from 50 percent since March. WFP plans to increase rations to 75 percent between December 2025 and March 2026. However, without additional funding, refugee food assistance may not continue beyond March, and nutrition support could end by December 2025, heightening nutritional risks for vulnerable groups. WFP is also preparing for the anticipated return of a large group of approximately 20,000 Burundians from Tanzania by the end of December, where they are currently living as refugees; the Tanzanian government and international aid organizations recently announced that they will end support to Nduta and Nyarugusu camps.
Recommended citation: FEWS NET. Burundi Key Message Update November 2025: Stressed (IPC Phase 2) outcomes continue in border areas amid low rainfall and high prices, 2025.
This Key Message Update provides a high-level analysis of current acute food insecurity conditions and any changes to FEWS NET's latest projection of acute food insecurity outcomes in the specified geography. Learn more here.