Burundi: Imbonerakure day scares the United Nations

The United Nations is concerned about probable insecurity that could result from the march of this Saturday marking the celebration of the day dedicated to the Imbonerakure, the youth league of the ruling party. The minister in charge of external relations has contacted the United Nations system to lift the alert.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The department in charge of security of the United Nations agencies in Burundi alerts the personnel of these agencies in particular and asks them to avoid certain roads in Bujumbura, the economic capital, to remain vigilant when traveling this Saturday and to report any incident that occurs.

The leaked note seen by SOS Médias Burundi was intended for staff of UN agencies in Burundi only.

“We do not know how you managed to get it but it was produced for internal use only,” a UN official in Bujumbura told SOS Médias Burundi. He spoke on condition of anonymity. The note was widely shared especially in WhatsApp messaging groups of Burundians in the diaspora.

Shingiro’s frustration

According to our sources in Bujumbura, the Burundian Minister in charge of external affairs Albert Shingiro was angry with the UN office in Bujumbura after the note was leaked. He asked for it to be cancelled. Which was done.

“A new internal cancellation note has been sent to the staff of the United Nations agencies,” a civil servant from a UN agency in the economic capital Bujumbura told SOS Médias Burundi.

Imbonerakure in military parade at the Ingoma stadium in Gitega in the political capital (SOS Media Burundi)

The note that was initially sent to the staff of the UN agencies in Burundi did not mention the party that organized this Saturday’s march.

“This Saturday, August 31, 2024 in Bujumbura Mairie, the youth league of a political party in Burundi will organize a big party at the Cercle Hippique,” the note said.

In reality, it is the celebration of the 8th anniversary of the day dedicated to the Imbonerakure of the CNDD-FDD, the presidential party.

https://www.sosmediasburundi.org/2023/08/26/burundi-les-imbonerakure-de-nouveau-mis-a-lhonneur-et-sollicites/

The head of the youth league of the presidential party, Éric Nshimirimana, called on them before the celebration to “remain united and get down to development work”.

Cited in several acts of abuse and violence against opponents and supposed opponents, members of the youth league of the former Hutu rebellion that became the presidential party in 2005 thanks to the Arusha peace and reconciliation agreement of August 2000 remain considered by several human rights organizations and UN bodies as “a militia”. CNDD-FDD officials and Burundian authorities from this party continue to deny these allegations saying that “their authors have the objective of tarnishing the image of the country and that of its institutions”.

The day will be celebrated throughout the national territory. But the main ceremony will take place in the commercial city of Bujumbura.

Several Imbonerakure have participated in recent weeks in paramilitary training in all the provinces of the small East African nation to prepare for “an extraordinary parade”, at the call of President Évariste Ndayishimiye and the secretary general of the CNDD-FDD, Révérien Ndikuriyo.

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A police officer supervises demonstrators who go to the United Nations human rights office in Bujumbura which closed in 2019 following the pressure of the Burundian authorities (SOS Médias Burundi)