Report: Burundi militia raped women with opposition links

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Members of the youth wing of Burundi’s ruling party have gang-raped women and girls related to people accused of opposing President Pierre Nkurunziza, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

Several women told the rights group that Imbonerakure members sometimes would tell the victim they were raping her because they could not find her relative, the new report said.

The rights group said it interviewed more than 70 rape victims and that 14 said they recognized at least one attacker as an Imbonerakure member.

Burundi has been in turmoil since Nkurunziza last year pursued and won a third term that many oppose. Hundreds of people have died, and more than 220,000 have fled their homes. Rights groups have accused the government of violence against opposition members and protesters.

Human Rights Watch said 323 cases of rape or sexual assault, affecting 264 women and 59 girls, were reported from May to September 2015.

Responding to the report, Burundian presidential spokesman Willy Nyamitwe tweeted that the Imbonerakure are not a gang of rapists, adding that “these false allegations are not new and have been denied.”

The Imbonerakure, which means “those who see far” in the Kurundi language, has some 50,000 members across the country, according to Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, Burundi’s most prominent human rights activist.

“They have powers and can commit any crime and go unpunished since they are supported by the government authorities to keep the president in power,” said Lambert Nigarura, a prominent lawyer and activist in Burundi.