Nduta (Tanzania) : a Burundian refugee detained in inhumane conditions

Stany Nyandwi, in his thirties, was abducted by Tanzanian police officers outside the camp and taken to an initially unknown location. He was later found in prison, in critical condition due to the torture he allegedly suffered. His family is demanding his immediate release. The police explain that he is an irregular immigrant.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Last weekend, Stany Nyandwi’s wife learned that her husband was held at Nyamusivya prison in Kibondo District, Kigoma Region, northwest Tanzania, where the Nduta camp is located. She went there directly.

“I found him in critical condition. I wasn’t allowed to approach him for fear that I might see signs of torture on his body,” she told the Women’s Legal Aid Center (WILAC), an NGO that works with legal issues in refugee camps in Tanzania. She had just spent a week without hearing from her husband.

“I spoke to him from a distance. He was about ten meters away, guarded by police officers. He was very weak,” she recalls.

The Tanzanian police explained that the detainee was “living illegally” on the Tanzanian soil and that he would have to be deported after his release from prison.

His wife presented all the documents proving his refugee status, but she was ignored.

She quickly contacted WILAC to request legal assistance. This NGO agreed to organize a raid on the prison and then advocate for this Burundian to be treated as a refugee.

In this case, we learned, his imprisonment could not exceed six months and he would be returned to his address in the Nduta camp. The available status shows that Stany Nyandwi lives in Zone 6, Village 9, House Number 1, where his wife and eight children also live.

Roundups targeting Burundian refugees

Roundups have recently been carried out around the Nduta and Nyarugusu refugee camps located in northwest Tanzania.

“The police have learned that several young Burundians and Congolese are participating in armed groups such as Red-Tabara and the M23 based in eastern DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). They want to discourage these movements and catch those involved in recruitment and/or meetings,” said a community leader at the Nduta camp. He neither confirmed nor denied these reports.

He asked the police not to generalize and to conduct their investigations and patrols meticulously to “avoid the arrest of innocent people.” Recently, Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye told diplomats in the commercial city of Bujumbura, where UN agencies and the central administration are concentrated, that “President Paul Kagame is hardening young Burundian refugees in the Congolese war with the aim of attacking his country.” It was not yet clear whether these roundups were linked to this statement.

Nduta is home to more than 58,000 Burundian refugees. Its inhabitants fled the 2015 crisis, following another controversial term of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza that same year.

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A Burundian refugee in front of his house in Nduta ©️ SOS Médias Burundi