Bujumbura : the Burundian intelligence detains five doctors who demand rights of health practitioners

Dismayed and excited, members of the National Federation of Health Sector Unions are protesting against the arrest and imprisonment of five doctors by the SNR (National Intelligence Service) for over a week. They are prosecuted for “undermining state security” for demanding their rights and those of their peers. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

In a press release made public on February 5, 2025 and signed by the president and vice-president of the National Federation of Health Sector Unions, FNSS, respectively Mélance Hakizimana and Marie Bukuru, the FNSS indicates that it learned with dismay of the arrest and imprisonment of five doctors for over a week by the National Intelligence Service. They are held in the dungeons of the Burundian secret services in the commercial city of Bujumbura.

Causes

The five health practitioners are prosecuted for “undermining state security”, according to the Federation.

“The fact of demanding the improvement of working conditions is not a crime and should in no case be the reason to be treated as a criminal. Wages have always been demanded, they are demanded today and will always be demanded until the end of the world by workers….”, the document indicates.

According to the FNSS, such detention “is harassment that must be denounced by any person acting in good faith, because it is a notorious violation of human rights”.

The Federation of Burundian Health Sector Trade Unions states that it is surprising that the government is resorting to force in violation of Conventions N° 29 and 190 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), respectively on forced labor and on violence and harassment, at a time when the country is a member of this organization and has even established institutions for social dialogue that each partner should refer to in the event of conflicts related to labor relations.

In addition, the FNSS is indignant, “the arrest of these doctors did not follow the procedures because no one among the detainees was summoned and refused to respond to a warrant from a prosecutor or a summons from a judicial police officer”.

Among the doctors detained by the Burundian secret services, some were arrested while they were working.

“The intelligence agents did not think about medical emergencies and the consequences that result from them. The arrest of these doctors is an act of violence, anti-union and anti-democratic which sufficiently demonstrates the attempt to intimidate workers so that no one dares to claim their rights despite many social injustices suffered by employees, especially state employees,” lament the two union leaders.

Relations with the supervising minister

The Burundian minister in charge of health, Lyduine Baradahana, is accused by union representatives of “no longer receiving us in her office”.

“We demand that these five doctors be released unconditionally because they have not committed any crime,” they say.

The FNSS asks Minister Baradahana to “get out of the myth of moving away from the policy of social dialogue in order to embrace the culture of social dialogue, a fundamental pillar of any society and which promotes mutual understanding, social cohesion and the resolution of conflicts in a peaceful manner”.

This Federation asks all doctors to be united by supporting their colleagues instead of getting caught in the vicious circle of doubt, fear and guilt.

Burundian doctors are the least and worst paid in Central and East Africa, with a monthly salary of less than 100 USD.