GENERAL UPDATE
In a context of economic crisis marked by shortages of fuel and commodities, and as Burundi continues to be impacted by the conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi’s civic space remains heavily constrained.
Ahead of the 2027 presidential election, tensions are mounting. Given the absence of a meaningful multi-party environment, presidential election competition is expected to take place primarily within the ruling CNDD-FDD (National Council for the Defence of Democracy – Forces for the Defence of Democracy) party. In March 2026, former Prime Minister Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to overthrow the government, was granted provisional release, officially on grounds of health. However, as several generals and CNDD-FDD members had demanded his release from President Ndayishimiye, the move is largely seen as a gesture intended to reunite the President’s camp.
In light of the ongoing grave human rights situation in Burundi, on 30th January 2026, Foreign Ministers of the European Union adopted EU Priorities for UN human rights fora in 2026. The document commits the EU to continue to take a leading role in country-specific initiatives at the UN Human Rights Council, including on Burundi. The annual resolution extending the Special Rapporteur’s mandate is slated for September 2026.
In a decision published in December 2025, the UN Committee Against Torture found that Burundi had subjected lawyers to reprisals for cooperating with the Committee, including disbarment and the seizure of property, in violation of the Convention against Torture. The Committee urged Burundi to take immediate steps to remedy the violations, including restoring the complainants’ law licences, reversing all professional bans, restoring their property rights, providing full redress to the complainants, and ensuring that no similar violations occur in the future.
In separate developments, seventeen years after the assassination of anti-corruption activist Ernest Manirumva, NGO OLUCOME denounced the lack of significant progress in the investigation. Manirumva was killed on 8th April 2009 in the commercial capital, Bujumbura, an assassination widely considered targeted and attributed to elements of the Burundian intelligence services.
Association
In its Concluding Observations on Burundi, released on 18th December 2025 after the country’s review, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) indicated that it shared the concerns of the Human Rights Committee regarding the “extremely restrictive legislative framework on freedom of association” created by the laws adopted in 2017 that govern foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and non-profit associations. It recommended a review of these laws, “so as to provide all civil society organisations, including those working to combat racial discrimination and protect the rights of persons and groups protected by the Convention, an open environment in which to work, without political control by the authorities or interference contrary to the State Party’s international obligations.”
Matongo: President Ndayishimiye lashes out and insults Faustin Ndikumana
— SOS Médias Burundi (@SOSMediasBDI) November 7, 2025
On November 5, in Matongo, Butanyerera province, President Évariste Ndayishimiye used the installation ceremony of Janvière Kanyana, the new communal administrator, to launch a verbal attack against… pic.twitter.com/AVlyG70ERs
On 5th November 2025, Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye publicly attacked Faustin Ndikumana, the national director of the NGO PARCEM, by insulting him and delivering vilifying remarks likening him to demons, and compared him to the biblical figures Sanballat and Tobia, while also ridiculing him for being unmarried. According to SOS-Médias Burundi, Ndikumana is “one of the very few activists still present in the country” and continues to denounce bad governance and corruption.
Peaceful assembly
The space for peaceful public gatherings not endorsed by the ruling CNDD-FDD party remains extremely limited in Burundi. In February 2026, in a context of tensions over insufficient quantities, delivery delays, and a lack of equity in access to agricultural products, the distribution of fertilisers was suspended following a protest by farmers. Protesting allocation measures, affected farmers staged a sit-in in front of the Bururi district offices, which led the Bururi district administrator to postpone the distribution. This took place against a backdrop of mistrust among farmers and mounting grievances over the country’s economic situation.
Expression
In a comprehensive new report on the situation of journalists in the Great Lakes region, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) documented how the Burundian media has been systematically weakened since the start of the 2015 crisis, including through arbitrary arrests, detentions, intimidation, threats and attacks.
On 18th November 2025, in Makamba, Burunga province, Léonard Maroha, a correspondent for the state newspaper Le Renouveau du Burundi, was targeted by members of the Imbonerakure (the CNDD-FDD party’s youth league) while covering the distribution of agricultural products. He was stopped, then dragged into a warehouse and forced to delete the images he had taken. Maroha later contacted the provincial governor, who referred the matter to the judiciary, but “administrative authorities and CNDD-FDD officials intervened to stifle the case and favour an amicable settlement.”
On 22nd December 2025, two senior officials from the Iwacu news group were interrogated by National Intelligence Service (SNR) agents in Bujumbura in relation to an article concerning Burundi’s military involvement in the eastern DRC. According to SOS Médias Burundi, Abbas Mbazumutima, Editorial Director, and Léandre Sikuyavuga, Director of the news group, were questioned for nine hours at the SNR headquarters, without prior written summons.
On 13th April 2026, the Ngozi Court of Appeal in northern Burundi delivered its verdict in the trial of journalist Sandra Muhoza, sentencing her to six months in prison, time she had already served. In February 2026, the public prosecutor had ordered her provisional release. In January 2026, Muhoza, who was the only woman journalist detained in Sub-Saharan Africa, was sentenced to four years in prison by the Ngozi High Court for “undermining the integrity of the national territory” and “racial aversion,” a sentence rendered after multiple postponements and that was nearly twice as long as the one originally handed down to her in 2024.
She had been in detention since April 2024 following opaque legal proceedings after she was charged over comments made in a journalists’ WhatsApp group about the alleged distribution of machetes to Imbonerakure, as previously documented on the Monitor.