Search Results for: burundi

The Canadian government is being sued over its pandemic-era policy of turning back asylum seekers attempting to enter the country at official border crossings. The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) filed a legal challenge on Tuesday against the Federal government’s decision to restrict access through the Canada-US border, citing in a statement “the severe harm [...]

President of Burundi Evariste Ndayishimiye Thursday pardoned  four journalists who were imprisoned for “attempting to undermine state security.” The Head of the Information and Communications Division for the Office of the President, Willy Nyamitwe, tweeted Thursday that Ndayishimiye “has favorably responded” to a letter from journalists Agnès Ndirubusa, Christine Kamikazi, Egide Harerimana, and Térence Mpozenzi requesting a [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused Tanzanian authorities of violating the rights of Burundian refugees. The report states that at least 18 refugees and asylum seekers have been abused since 2019, while also mentioning that the location of some who were forcibly disappeared remains unknown. “Between October 2019 and August 2020, Tanzanian police and intelligence [...]

Burundi’s top court sentenced former president Pierre Buyoya to life in prison on Tuesday for the 1993 murder of Melchior Ndadaye, the man who had defeated Buyoya in the presidential elections to become the central African country’s first freely elected president. The killing of Ndadaye, which occurred four months after he had won election, triggered [...]

The UN report claimed Thursday that human rights violations are still widespread and remain unpunished in Burundi, despite the new government. The Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, which drafted the report at the request of the UN Human Rights Council, said that there has been little in the way of positive changes as to human rights [...]

The Burundi constitutional court ruled Monday that president-elect Evariste Ndayishimiye should be sworn in “as soon as possible,” following the death of President Pierre Nkurunziza on June 8. Ndayishimiye was originally scheduled to be sworn in on August 20. However, because of Nkurunziza’s unexpected death, the court had to choose between an interim president or [...]

A Burundi court on Friday rejected the appeal of four journalists convicted of undermining state security. In October 2019 Burundi police arrested four Iwacu journalists: Christine Kamikazi, Agnès Ndirubusa, Egide Harerimana and Térence Mpozenzi. Each journalist is facing a fine of $530 and two years and six months imprisonment. Their driver, arrested with them, was [...]

The Burundi constitutional court on Thursday upheld the presidential election of retired general Evariste Ndayishimiye. The controversial election occurred in May and marked the country’s first competitive presidential election since 1993. According to voter results, Ndayishimiye won the election with 69 percent of the votes. However, Agathon Rwasa, who supposedly won 24 percent of the [...]

Pierre-Claver Ndayicariye, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Burundi, on Wednesday submitted a report to the parliament of Burundi that his investigation had uncovered more than 4,000 mass graves in the country connected to conflicts since the countries independence in 1962. The exact number of victims is yet to be determined, but so [...]

The Report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, released Wednesday, details human rights violations committed in Burundi since their last report in 2018. These violations include some international crimes and are mainly carried out by members of the youth league of the ruling party called the Imbonerakure. A political and economic crisis has [...]