Burundi ruling party youth incite rape of opposition women

BURUNDIANS belonging to the ruling party’s youth movement, Imbonerakure, have been filmed chanting songs that call for rape of opposition women to make them pregnant and give birth to Imbonerakure children.

Members of the youth wing of the ruling CNDDFDD arrived at a party meeting in Ngozi after a long march singing: “Impregnate opponents so that they can give birth to Imbonerakure.”

“They were singing and there were some officials, the police and the army present who witnessed that kind of song,” said a civil society activist.

Ngozi is Burundi president Pierre Nkurunziza’s home province.

Opposition activists accused the government of encouraging the youth to rape opponents, saying it was not the first time these kinds of songs had bee sung by ruling party members, including Imbonerakure.

Cases of girls and women being raped in Burundi have previously been reported by Human Rights Watch and other Burundian civil society organisations, but the government has denied them, accusing civil society activists of being part of a conspiracy to destroy the regime.

In Bujumbura, a young girl, living in an opposition stronghold known as Jabe, testified she had been arrested after the killing of her father, and taken to a hotel in Kigobe where she was raped by armed men, including members of the presidential guard. She was taken to hospital after being left for dead, then fled to Rwanda.

Ruling party spokesperson Nancy Ninette Mutoni said the party had started investigations to punish those involved.