Forced to return home, thousands of Burundi refugees face sexual violence, death, and torture

Thousands of Burundi refugees under pressure to return home face death, sexual violence, and torture after they arrive, according to a recent Amnesty International report, contrasting attempts by the government to appear like the country is safe enough for Burundians to return home.
In the report “Conform or flee: Repression and insecurity pushing Burundians into exile,” researchers spoke with 129 Burundian refugees and asylum seekers, who had fled because of “a pattern of killings and beatings, sexual violence, excessive use of force during arrest, torture and other ill-treatment in detention, and the payment of ransoms to be released from detention.” Nearly all of the Burundian refugees and asylum seekers spoke about the insecurity caused by the Imbonerakure, the youth league of the Burundi ruling party whose name means “those who see far” which has brutally killed and tortured people in the past.

Forced to return home, thousands of Burundi refugees face sexual violence, death, and torture