United Nations investigators say despite Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye’s pledges to end repression, the human rights situation in the East African country has worsened in the 15 months since he took office.
Ndayishimiye’s election last year had raised hopes of a more open political environment emerging after many years of violence and severe rights violations in the troubled nation.
But in a report released Thursday, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi said that although the authorities appeared to have eased some restrictions, conditions had actually worsened for opposition parties, journalists and NGOs, which are facing a renewed crackdown.
The UN statement said members of opposition parties… are still regularly targeted by abusive restrictions and are subject to grave human rights violations such as disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions and torture.
Observers had hoped that Ndayishimiye’s government would help the country turn a corner and improve its human rights record, but UN investigators said Burundian security forces were still committing violations.
Burundi has been in crisis since 2015, when then president Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a third term and was re-elected in polls boycotted by most of the opposition.
At least 1,200 people were killed and more than 400,000 forced into exile as a result of violence which the UN says was mostly carried out by state security forces.
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