(CWN Editor’s. Catholic Culture).
“The realization that there are people in our country who are cruelly murdered or abducted and disappear for political reasons or other macabre interests makes one shudder,” the bishops said. “If a person is arrested by the competent authorities, justice must be administered in accordance with the law; the person must be held in a place that is known and accessible to family members.”
In 2022, Human Rights Watch stated that “Burundi’s national intelligence services, police, and ruling party youth members have killed, arbitrarily detained, tortured and harassed people suspected of belonging to opposition parties.” The nation’s president, Évariste Ndayishimiye, has been in office since 2020.
The African Great Lakes nation of 13.2 million (map) is 94% Christian (65% Catholic), 3% ethnic religionist, and 2% Muslim.