Burundi : two journalists’ long detention ends on the same day

SOS Médias Burundi

Bujumbura / Ngozi, March 4, 2026 – Two Burundian journalists were released on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, after more than two years of detention. Sandra Muhoza and Kenny Claude Nduwimana left the Ngozi and Mpimba prisons, respectively, on the same afternoon, in separate cases that are nonetheless emblematic of the climate surrounding the press in this small east African nation.

Sandra Muhoza granted provisional release for health reasons

Burundian journalist Sandra Muhoza, a contributor to the online news outlet La Nova, was granted provisional release on the afternoon of March 4, 2026. She left Ngozi Central Prison, located in Butanyerera Province in northern Burundi, after nearly 23 months of detention.

The decision follows a request filed by her lawyer with the Ngozi Court of Appeal. The defense cited the alarming deterioration of her health. According to her lawyers, the journalist was using crutches and required urgent medical care.

The public prosecutor’s office at the Ngozi Court of Appeal granted the request for provisional release on medical grounds. This measure, subject to strict conditions—including a ban on leaving her province without authorization and the obligation to appear regularly before the court—will allow her to receive medical treatment while awaiting the appeal verdict.

Arrested on April 13, 2024, in the former province of Ngozi by agents of the National Intelligence Service, Sandra Muhoza was initially detained in intelligence cells in Bujumbura before being transferred to Mpimba Central Prison. The Bujumbura Court of Appeal subsequently declared itself incompetent, sending the case back to Ngozi.

Initially sentenced to 21 months in prison, she was retried and received a harsher sentence : four years’ imprisonment, handed down on January 14, 2026, for endangering the State security and racial hatred. Her family and several observers described her detention as arbitrary, denouncing a politically motivated case and a trial marred by irregularities.

Kenny Claude Nduwimana released the same afternoon

On the same Wednesday, Kenny Claude Nduwimana was released from Bujumbura Central Prison, in the commercial capital, better known as Mpimba, after more than two years of detention.

Arrested in October 2023 for fraud and defamation via social media, he claims he was targeted for denouncing cases of misappropriation of public land. He continues to proclaim his innocence.

In August 2025, in an open letter addressed to President Évariste Ndayishimiye, he wrote :

“If the Burundian justice system is truly independent, I must be released.”

His release comes after a request for a presidential pardon, a step suggested to him by the head of state in December 2025.

A signal in a context of declining press freedom

The release of the two journalists comes amid a continued deterioration of press freedom.

In its 2025 World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Burundi 125th out of 180 countries, a drop of 17 places compared to the previous year. This decline confirms a worrying trend in the small east African nation, as well as in an increasingly repressive African media landscape.

While the legal proceedings concerning Sandra Muhoza and Kenny Claude Nduwimana are not yet fully concluded, their release on March 4, 2026, marks the end of a long ordeal of more than two years for their families and reignites the debate on the independence of the judiciary and the protection of journalists in Burundi.