Kirundo : an Imbonerakure leader in detention

The leader of the Imbonerakure (members of the CNDD-FDD party youth league) from the Nyange-Bushaza neighborhood in the urban center of Kirundo (northern Burundi) has just spent a week in the Kirundo judicial police cell. The reason for his incarceration is : blows and injuries inflicted on three people including a subvillage leader located in the same village and a woman who was carrying a child on her back. The courts have already counted 21 victims of his violence, without mentioning murder cases in which his name is cited. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The leader of the Imbonerakure in the Nyange-Bushaza neighborhood is generally known by the nickname of Madora.

According to Imbonerakure, he beat village deputy-chief Thaddée for refusing to close his bar when it was 8:30 p.m. on February 14.

“You don’t scare me. I can slap you and take it from there”, Madora boasted.

“No sooner said than done. Madora wasted no time in punching him twice in the head and the man lost consciousness in front of his wife, children and clients”, said a witness to the scene.

After seeing what was happening to this local elected official, the local leader of the Imbonerakure fled.

Our sources specify that while fleeing, he jostled and hit a woman from the same neighborhood who had a baby on her back. The latter fell to the ground from behind and the child risked death.

“The child lost consciousness for at least 45 minutes. We alerted the police that arrived as quickly as possible but he had already run away”, said a witness on the spot.

The attacker was arrested the next day, according to local sources.

The victims were taken to the provincial hospital the same night. The cost of health care is equivalent to 87 thousand Burundi francs. They were paid by Madora.

Our sources say that the judicial police officer demanded Madora to pay a sum of 210 thousand Burundi francs as compensation costs so that he would be released.

A senior judge at the Ngozi Court of Appeal (north) opposed his release because he has in his possession several files of violence perpetrated by the concerned person, sources say.

He is also reported to have said that the three people are added to a list of victims of his violence, numbering 21.

Madora has been cited in acts of murder for several years including the assassination of the former administrator of the district of Kirundo Serges Barutwanayo savagely killed in 2014.

Residents of Kirundo province are demanding severe sanctions against Madora “who behaves like a little neighborhood god”, according to them.