Powerful former premier Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni arrested in Burundi

Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, Burundian Minister of Security (R) talks with a police officer in Bujumbura on April 12, 2016. 

What you need to know:

  • Bunyoni, detained on the eve of his 51th birthday, was prime minister from mid-2020 to September 2022 but was fired in a major reshuffle after President Evariste Ndayishimiye took office in 2020.
  • Police and intelligence officers had searched three properties belonging to Bunyoni on Monday, but found no trace of him, according to security sources and media reports.

Nairobi, 

Burundian authorities have arrested former prime minister Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, seven months after his sacking in a high-level political purge, the country's human rights commission and a top security source said Saturday.

Bunyoni, detained on the eve of his 51th birthday, was prime minister from mid-2020 to September 2022 but was fired in a major reshuffle after President Evariste Ndayishimiye took office in 2020.

A former police chief and minister of internal security, he was replaced by then interior minister Gervais Ndirakobuca, days after Ndayishimiye had warned of a "coup" plot against him.

Police and intelligence officers had searched three properties belonging to Bunyoni on Monday, but found no trace of him, according to security sources and media reports.

Bunyoni had long been seen as de facto number two in the regime since a 2015 political crisis.

Ndayishimiye had indicated he was himself politically isolated in a 2021 speech.

The CNIDH, Burundi's human rights commission, said it had Saturday visited Bunyon, adding that he "has not suffered any act of torture or any other abuse since his arrest.

Interior Minister Martin Niteretse told a press conference Wednesday authorities were looking for Bunyoni.

"In reality, general Bunyoni was arrested very quickly by the national intelligence service," a high-ranking security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Although the international community has noted a relative opening up of the country since Ndayishimiye took office following the sudden death of predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza, a UN rights committee in September 2021 dubbed Burundi's rights situation "disastrous."

Nkurunziza's chaotic and bloody rule saw Burundi largely isolated and the country of 12 million people remains one of the world's poorest. 

In 2015, Nkurunziza oversaw a crackdown on political opponents and made Burundi a global pariah amid turmoil after he launched a bid for a third term in office, in violation of a peace deal that ended a bloody civil war in 2006.

Some 300,000 people were killed in 13 years of bloody ethnic fighting while around 400,000 people fled abroad amid reports of arbitrary arrests, torture, killings and enforced disappearances.