The Tanzanian security services have arbitrarily arrested, tortured or forcibly disappeared over the past year around 20 Burundian refugees from camps in Tanzania, the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced on Monday (November 30th).
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The Tanzanian police have "
arrested and forcibly disappeared (...) refugees and asylum seekers since January 2020
" whose "
fate is still unknown,
" said the organization in a report released on Monday.
In addition, “
between October 2019 and August 2020, the Tanzanian police and intelligence services (...) tortured and arbitrarily detained at least 11 Burundians for several weeks in deplorable conditions at a police station in Kibondo, in the Kigoma region
"in northwestern Tanzania, near the border with Burundi, says HRW.
"
Three of them were released in Tanzania and the Tanzanian authorities forcibly returned the other eight to Burundi in August, where they are being held without charge,
" continues the human rights organization. which evokes a possible "
collusion between the agents of the two countries
".
According to testimonies collected by HRW, at least nine of them claimed to have been tortured in the dungeons of the Kibondo police station.
According to them, "
the police and intelligence agents subjected them to electric shocks, rubbed their faces and genitals with chili, and beat and whipped them
."
Those who were released have returned to the refugee camps, HRW said, adding that the arrests took place in the Mtendeli and Nduta refugee camps in the Kigoma region,
“
The enforced disappearances of Burundian refugees and asylum seekers in Tanzania committed by the Tanzanian authorities are heinous crimes, not least because of the anguish and suffering caused to family members, many of whom , fled similar abuses in Burundi,
”denounces Mausi Segun, director of the Africa division of HRW.
At the end of October, more than 150,000 Burundian refugees were still in three camps in Tanzania, while nearly 100,000 have returned since September 2017. More than 400,000 Burundians had fled to neighboring countries at the height of the crisis arising from Pierre's decision. Nkruunziza, now deceased, to run for a third presidential term.
"
Fear of violence, of being arrested and of being deported has prompted many Burundian refugees and asylum seekers in Tanzania to leave the country,
" HRW concluded in a 2019 report.
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