Our Friend Rev. Aloys Ningabira died suddenly this week, and we are raising money to help cover funeral costs and to support Aloys’s family.

Aloys was the National Coordinator for Turning the Tide in Burundi (based within MIPAREC). As former Legal Representative of the Burundian Quaker church (Eglise Evangélique des Amis du Burundi), Aloys was a very influential religious leader in Burundi. Aloys was a multilinguist who spoke Kirundi, Swahili, French, and English. He cared deeply about the people of Burundi and within the wider East Africa region.

Aloys had decades of experience in peace work (which included setting up the Kibimba peace committee). Our former Quakers in Britain colleague Tobias Wellner, described Aloys as a world class peacebuilder with a tremendous gift of bringing people together. Kenyan colleagues from AfriNov speak for many when they say, “We have lost a true changemaker, a dedicated peacebuilder and a gentle, peaceful soul whose contribution touched many lives.”

Working on Turning the Tide meant that Aloys was able to develop and integrate nonviolence approaches alongside his substantial peacebuilding skills. Recent work includes facilitating training and dialogue to ensure peaceful coexistence between young people from different political parties, often through using creative approaches such as forum theatre.

Aloys was instrumental in bringing Turning the Tide nonviolence approaches, alongside peacebuilding training, to Quakers in DR Congo, along with Benard Agona (AfriNov) and supported by Quaker Congo Partnership UK. Aloys was also a founding and active member of the East Africa Network which is a regionally-led network bringing together Turning the Tide peacebuilding and nonviolence practitioners from Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, and in 2026, this included Quakers from DR Congo for the first time.

Quakers in Britain hold Aloys’s wife, family, his colleagues at MIPAREC, the wider TTT Burundi network, and his community in the Light, in our prayers, and in our hearts at this very difficult time.

We note the words Aloys always shared whenever anyone was feeling discouraged, “Keep Courage, Keep On”.