Burundi Killings Could Ignite Wider African Crisis, U.N. Report Warns
Human rights activists and journalists have been the primary targets of the government’s crackdown, the United Nations team reported, citing the killing of a local television reporter at his house, purportedly by the police. His wife and two children were
I could be your child; I beg you, save me,” the 16-yearold pleaded to police officers in Burundi. Seconds later, an officer put two bullets in his head.
The killing of the teenager, Jean Nepo, during an antigovernment protest on the streets of Bujumbura, the capital, was one of hundreds of summary killings cited by United Nations investigators in a report. The report documented serious abuses during the last 18 months that could amount to crimes against humanity.
“The responsibility for the vast majority of these violations should be laid at the door of the government,” the investigators wrote, urging international action to contain a crisis they said threatened the peace and security of the surrounding region in Central Africa.
The report documented 564 summary killings in Burundi from April 2015 to the end of August, but the report’s three authors wrote that “this is clearly a conservative estimate.” Their inquiry began in December and included two visits to Burundi.
The investigators also found that thousands of people had been tortured; countless women had been subjected to sexual violence, including mutilations; hundreds of people had disappeared; and more than 286,000 had fled to neighbouring countries.
While opposition groups were responsible for some of the violence, the report said, a large majority of victims have been identified as people who were opposed or perceived to be opposed to the government, or who belonged to opposition parties.
The violence erupted in April 2015 after President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a third term in office, which set off antigovernment protests and a failed coup the next month. He won a third term that July in a muchcriticized election.