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Mr Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa is a prominent defender of human rights in Burundi. In May 2014, he publicly spoke out against the Burundian government’s policy of recruiting and training youths aligned with the party, who go by the name of “Imbonerakure” and are often accused of abuse perpetrated against civilians (pillage, violence, etc.). The day after taking this stanc...

A prominent member of a Burundian opposition party, Henri (real name withheld) was arrested on his way to work in 2010. Before even reaching the police station, the agents had started beating him. The acts of abuse lasted for hours and continued while he was incarcerated. On top of the torture and the threats, Henri was held under deplorable conditions: for five days...

Marc (real name withheld), was a member of the Burundian military and father of two children. He was arrested at the same time as many of his colleagues, falsely accused of plotting a coup. Marc denied the allegations for hours but his prison guards did not give up, resorting to torture to make him “confess”. He was subjected to blows from chairs, gun butts and be...

Kurt (real name withheld) was an active member of the opposition. He was arrested by around 15 police officers at his home in the early hours of the morning in 2007. Taken to the police station, those officers wanted Kurt to testify against the former president of his party and to acknowledge that he himself had tried to destabilize the party in power – which was by...

A member of the Burundian police, Jeff (real name withheld) witnessed rampant corruption among his ranks while at work. The fact that he was courageous enough to publicly report such abuse led to his arrest and then arbitrary detention for several weeks. The intimidation continued after his release: more or less explicit warnings, dismissal and, finally, death thr...

Jean-Pierre (real name withheld) was a renowned Burundian lawyer and an opponent of the government. In 2011, he was stopped and detained in a witness corruption case. He was charged for witness subordination – an infringement which, regardless of its veracity, has been time-barred since 2006. This pretext concealed the real reason for his arrest: Jean-Pierre’s pol...

André (real name withheld) was a ranked army member. One night, he was jogging with his friends when gun shots suddenly rang out. Armed men, some of whom were in civilian clothes and others in police uniform, rushed in and requested everyone to leave the premises. Unsure how to react, André and his friends remained in place. Within minutes, André was tied up, sear...

Claude (real name withheld) was stopped in the street by Burundian State agents. Without any explanations, they simply threatened him with a weapon and ordered him to follow them, confiscating his car keys. During Claude’s interrogation, they tried by all means to make him “confess” fictitious facts: blows all over his body with bats and iron wires, suspension by...

On 17 December 2014, agents of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) arrested F. at his home, without any arrest warrant. He was immediately locked up in an ANR solitary confinement cell and tortured over a long period of time to make him “confess” to stealing a large sum of money from his former associate, who happened to be very close to the ANR Commander. Despite...

Fred Bauma is one of the most prominent figures of the LUCHA (standing for Lutte pour le Changement, the Fight for Change), a well-known NGO demanding democratic change in DRC. In March 2015, Fred was arrested by State agents during a peaceful demonstration in Kinshasa. Accused of inciting violence and rebellion, he was immediately placed in detention. TRIAL I...

Torture, a common practice in East DRC In Eastern DRC, torture is used as a widespread practice by the armed forces and particularly by agents of the National Intervention Legion (LENI), a specialist intervention unit of the Congolese National Police. From 2014 to 2015, local NGOs gathered numerous personal accounts from the population about cases of abuse, arbitrary...

Rached Jaïdane Wrongly suspected of inciting an attack against the party in power, Rached Jaïdane, a former political opponent, was arrested in Tunisia in 1993. Among the acts of cruelty that he suffered during his detention, Rached Jaïdane was punched, kicked and beaten with truncheons all over his body; he was subjected to the “roast chicken” method of torture,...