Burundi tells its ‘illegal’ couples to tie the knot

Unmarried couples in Burundi have been given until the end of the year to legalise their relationships as part of a government drive to reform morals.

President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a campaign this month “to moralise society” in the tiny East African nation of 11.2million souls.

Terence Ntahiraja, of the interior ministry, blamed “illegal marriages” – polygamy, bigamy and schoolgirl mothers – for a population explosion and said church and state-sanctioned weddings were a patriotic duty.