Photo of the week : two former MSD activists without news after being kidnapped by the Intelligence Service

Two former members of the MSD party (opposition) who had converted to CNDD-FDD party members were kidnapped last September and November. According to residents of the district of Mabayi in the province of Cibitoke (northwest Burundi) where they lived. Both were kidnapped by agents of the National Intelligence Service (SNR). The families of the two men are asking local authorities to help them find them.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The first case concerns Isidore Sibomana, father of 6 children. This nurse at the Nyarusebeyi health center in the Butahana zone in the district of Mabayi, was kidnapped on September 18 around 4 p.m. At the time of the incident, he was sharing a drink with his friends in a bar located near the provincial building.

An eyewitness to the scene of his abduction says he was kidnapped by the National Intelligence Service agents in police uniform. “They put him in a vehicle with tinted windows.” “For his survival”, Isidore Sibomana had joined the ruling party shortly after the 2015 crisis triggered by another controversial term of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza the same year according to sources close to the case.

The second case is that of Christophe Niyimporera, known as Kibada. This primary school teacher in the locality of Gasarabuye in Mabayi, was kidnapped while he was in a hotel owned by police colonel Jérôme Ntibibogora (cited in several abuses and assassinations of opponents), regional police commissioner for the country’s southern provinces. The hotel is located in the provincial town center of Cibitoke. The events took place on November 9 in the middle of the afternoon. Like his companion, he was kidnapped by men in police uniform “after having molested him”. Niyimporera was also taken away in a vehicle with tinted windows.

Sources close to the case say that the two former opponents were kidnapped by agents of the National Intelligence Service in collaboration with Imbonerakure (members of the CNDD-FDD youth league). Their families say they searched for them in all the official prisons, in vain.

“We have lost hope of finding them alive”, say desperately relatives of the two men.

Jeanne Izomporera, the district administrator of Mabayi admits to having been contacted by the families of the two men who have not been found.

She asks her subjects to “do everything so that the two men are found”.

A local administration official who testified on condition of anonymity, told SOS Médias Burundi that “the chances of finding them alive are very minimal”.

The MSD (Movement for Solidarity and Democracy) has been suspended in Burundi since April 2017. Its leader Alexis Sinduhije, a former journalist now in exile, is suspected of having been involved in the formation of Red-Tabara, an armed group of Burundian origin based in South Kivu and on the Burundian government’s list of terrorist movements. Mr. Sinduhije has always denied these accusations.

Our photo : Christophe Niyimporera and Isidore Sibomana, the two former opponents who were kidnapped by agents of the National Intelligence Service in Cibitoke (SOS Médias Burundi)