Burundi : systematic persecution of independent press, journalist Sandra Muhoza targeted

SOS Médias Burundi

Ngozi, February 20, 2026 – The prosecutor’s office at the Ngozi Court of Appeal, in the north of the small east African nation, is requesting confirmation of the four-year prison sentence for journalist Sandra Muhoza, a symbol of press freedom in Burundi. The charges, relating to undermining the State security and ethnically charged remarks, are, according to observers, part of a veritable judicial vendetta targeting independent journalists.

According to information gathered on the ground, the prosecutor’s office has asked the Court of Appeal to fully uphold the sentence handed down by the Ngozi First Instance Court, where Sandra Muhoza had already been convicted for remarks deemed insulting and ethnically sensitive.

The defense denounces confession obtained under coercion

Sandra Muhoza and her lawyers deny all the charges. They claim that the confession attributed to her was obtained under duress during a nighttime interrogation at the National Intelligence Service in the commercial capital, Bujumbura. The defense is demanding her immediate acquittal and release.

Many citizens present at the hearing denounced the disproportionate and targeted judicial treatment, condemning a climate of fear and intimidation that weighs heavily on the country’s entire independent press.

A case stemming from WhatsApp exchanges

Sandra Muhoza, a correspondent for the independent media outlet La Nova Burundi, was arrested in March 2024 and initially detained in Mpimba Central Prison before being transferred to Ngozi. The charges relate to comments exchanged in a WhatsApp group for local journalists. Already sentenced in December 2024 to 21 months in prison for a message shared in this group, she has become a symbol of the judicial and political pressure exerted on the independent press in Burundi.

The role of the presidential pardon

President Évariste Ndayishimiye recently invited Sandra Muhoza and journalist Kenny Claude Nduwimana to formally request a pardon, citing the precedent of Floriane Irangabiye, who was pardoned in August 2024 while serving a ten-year prison sentence.

Another journalist, Didier Ndihokubwayo, formerly of Radio Maria Burundi, detained since December 2024 for “illegal possession of weapons,” was sentenced to three years in prison.

A climate of widespread intimidation

This case illustrates a context in which Burundian journalists face constant political and judicial pressure, and where the justice system appears to be used to stifle the independent press and intimidate critical voices.

For Sandra Muhoza, the legal battle continues. This conviction is part of a climate of widespread intimidation against the press in Burundi, where five other journalists were recently arrested in Bujumbura under conditions deemed arbitrary. Three of them were detained for more than eight hours in intelligence offices, while two others spent two nights in a cell at an administrative building, north of the city. One of the two, a camera operator, is a breastfeeding mother who was separated from her child for more than two days, sparking outrage among families and human rights organizations.