Ferdinand Nyabenda, fell to the front in DRC : his family demands justice and dignified funerals

SOS Médias Burundi

Cibitoke, September 18, 2025 – Three months after the death of their father on the front in the DRC, the family of Ferdinand Nyabenda, nicknamed Bikora, still waits to be able to pay him a last tribute. Without a body, without a coffin, without an official ceremony, his relatives are petitioning Burundian military authorities for dignified funerals.

Originally from Nyakagunda, in the village of Rubuye, Rugombo zone, district of Cibitoke in the province of Bujumbura, bordering Congo, Ferdinand Nyabenda had joined the CNDD-FDD rebellion at a very young age, the former Hutu rebellion that came to power in 2005 with the signing of the Arusha peace agreement of August 2000, before joining, like many former fighters, the Burundian National army. A married father of three, he was killed last June in fighting between the Burundian army and its M23 rebel allies in the town of Rugezi, Fizi territory, in the eastern province of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A brutal and late news

According to his relatives, the family had not been officially informed of his death. For months, his children and wife waited for his return, until they learned recently that he had succumbed on the battlefield. Most difficult for them : the absence of the body, no coffin or funeral ceremony to honor his memory.

Families left without answers

“We ask the military high command to arrange dignified funerals, as for all other soldiers killed in combat,” a family member pleads. Bikora’s case would not be isolated : several families claim that other Burundian soldiers deployed to the DRC die in silence, their loved ones forced to keep mourning without ceremonies, assistance, or official recognition.

A call to recognition

For the Nyabenda family, it is not only a duty of memory, but also a matter of justice and dignity. “He fought for his country. He deserves an honorable burial,” his relatives recall. Behind this claim also lurks a broader anxiety : that of an invisible sacrifice, of soldiers dying far from home without their families receiving the slightest explanation or compensation.

Military context

Burundi has deployed about 10,000 troops in eastern DRC to fight alongside the FARDC, the Congolese loyalist army, and its allied militias in the fight against the M23. The armed group, which now controls the capitals of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces as well as several other strategic mineral-rich areas since the beginning of the year, is accused of being backed by Rwanda, which Kigali formally denies.