The international community must act now. In the last few days, Burundi has been theater of large-scale arbitrary arrests towards Tutsi (Rwandan) citizens and Banyamulenge (Congolese), in a climate of growing ethnic and political tension. The government of Evariste Ndayishimiye has intensified repressive measures afterwards having reported an alleged attack imminently by Rwanda, raising international concerns due to the risk of large-scale violence and crimes against humanity.
On February 16, hundreds of citizens Rwandans and Congolese belonging to Banyamulenge communities were arrested in the capital Bujumbura and in its suburbs, including Cibitoke and Buterere. According to local sources, the detainees were loaded onto military trucks and transported in the provinces of Gihanga and Bubanza for an alleged “screening”. Many of them were captured without any official reason.
The arrests occurred a few hours later that the Burundian president Ndayishimiye had urged the members of the Imbonerakure (the youth militia affiliated to the ruling party CNDD-FDD) and the population to prepare for a Rwanda attack. Such rhetoric has fueled the hatred and intensified the persecution of ethnic minorities, in particular Tutsi and Banyamulenge, falsely accused of being Rwandans agents.
The situation in Burundi fits into a highly unstable regional context. The Burundian army fights alongside of Congolese forces against the group rebel M23, which claims to defend the rights of language communities Kinyarwanda in the DRC. In the meanwhile, the government of Bujumbura accuses Rwanda of supporting the rebel group RED Tabara, an accusation that Kigali has repeatedly denied.
On the 1st of February, the Foreign Minister of Rwanda, Olivier Nduhungirehe, disputed the claims of Ndayishimiye according to which Burundi would send troops to the DRC to fight “foreign armed groups” wondering why it hadn’t been instead targeted the FDLR, a group accused of destabilizing the security of Rwanda. Human rights organizations and activists have made urgent appeals to stop the repression. Moses Nyarugabo, a Congolese lawyer, has sent a message to the president Burundian, asking for release of the prisoners immediately and reporting the growing spread of hate speech against the Banyamulenge on community social media.
According to SOS Médias Burundi, many Congolese refugees on the run from the violence in eastern DR Congo were arrested at the border and held by the Burundian secret services.
Tensions rising between Burundi, the Rwanda and the DRC, united with repression of ethnic minorities, raise fears of an escalation of the violence and a humanitarian crisis. The presence of foreign military forces and use of propaganda to justify ethnic persecution risks to aggravate the situation in the Great Lakes region. The international community is called to intervene urgently to avoid the recurrence of large-scale atrocities and ensure respect for human rights in Burundi.
