Abductions and killings of opposition members continue in alarming rates

Association

Since 7th February 2022, Jean Claude Nzigamye, an activist and member of the opposition party, the National Congress for Freedom (Congrès national pour la liberté, CNL), has been missing after he was allegedly kidnapped in Ngozi. According to witnesses, a group of armed men in civilian clothes led by Msafiri Niyonkurum, the head of the Imbonerakure, the ruling party youth league, abducted him and took off with him in a car with tinted windows. Efforts by his family to find him proved futile. As previously reported on several Monitor updates, for years now, members of opposition parties such as CNL have faced brutal repression, with systematic kidnappings, torture and murder instigated by authorities and the notorious Imbonerakure regularly being reported.

Expression

On 14th March 2022, the police prohibited civil society organisations OLUCOME and PARCEM from holding a press conference to discuss measures imposed on motorcycles, bicycles and tuk-tuks which limit their access to the Capital’s city centre. The press conference intended to urge the government to temporarily suspend these measures due to their economic consequences. Earlier, the Ministry of Interior and Public Security of Burundi banned bicycles, motorcycle taxis and tuk-tuks from entering the city centre with effect from 21st March 2022 because of the increasing number of fatal accidents they attributed to these modes of transport.