OCHA Eastern Africa/Flash Update 20: 07 August 2015 - Elections Crisis in Burundi and Regional Impact

General Developments

Two major developments marked the period since Flash Update 19, issued on 31 July: the assassination of General Adolphe Nshimirimana, a close advisor to President Pierre Nkurunziza, on 2 August, followed by the attempted assassination of human rights defender Pierre Clavier Mbonimpa on 4 August. Both attacks drew widespread condemnation from the international community. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, through his spokesman, said on 3 August that the incidents were “part of a growing pattern of politicallymotivated violence in Burundi that must be broken before it escalates beyond control.” The SecretaryGeneral stressed that accountability and the resumption of a genuine and inclusive political dialogue were the best response to such attempts to destabilize Burundi.

Members of the UN Security Council on 4 August expressed concern that the security situation in Burundi was deteriorating rapidly, following an electoral period marked by violence and reports of violations and abuses of human rights. They appealed to the Government of Burundi, as well as all political actors, to resume an inclusive dialogue without delay. To this end, they reaffirmed their support for regional engagement, in particular by the East African Community and the African Union, in calling for restraint and in pursuit of a political resolution to the crisis.

In other high-profile incidents, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern over “the brutal arrest and ill treatment” on 2 August of the RFI and AFP local correspondent, Esdras Ndikumana, by agents of the Service national de renseignement (SNR), the national intelligence agency, apparently because he was taking pictures at the crime site where General Nshimirimana was killed. OHCHR also said it was also concerned about the large number of arbitrary arrests over the last few months, noting that more than 600 people had been arrested and remained in detention without charge, some of them since April. “Our team, which regularly visits places of detention, has also documented over 40 cases of torture and ill-treatment,” OHCHR stated. Meanwhile, on 5 August, Come Harerimana, president of the CNDD-FDD ruling party’s chapter in Kanyosha district of Bujumbura, was pulled from the back of a motor bike and killed as he was heading to his office.

On 6 August, Human Rights Watch issued a new briefing paper, in which it states that Burundian intelligence officials, police, and youth from the ruling party have arbitrarily arrested and ill-treated scores of suspected opponents. It alleges that officials accuse many of the mostly young men arrested of trying to leave the country and planning to join an armed rebellion.