Burundi adopted a new constitution in 2005 after a series of agreements ended the country’s 12-year civil war. Among other provisions, the amended constitution lengthened presidential terms from five years to seven.

In January 2020, CNDD–FDD insiders selected Évariste Ndayishimiye, a former army general and interior minister, as the party’s candidate to succeed outgoing president Pierre Nkurunziza for that May’s election. Ndayishimiye won 71.5 percent of the vote, while the CNL’s Agathon Rwasa received 25.2 percent and Gaston Sindimwo of the Union for National Progress (UPRONA) received 1.7 percent. The contest was marred by a wide-ranging campaign of repression, which the United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Burundi said included the intelligence services, police, and the Imbonerakure, the ruling party’s youth wing. International observers were barred from the polls. The CNL claimed that the results were fraudulent, though the Constitutional Court upheld them in June. Ndayishimiye was to take office that August but was inaugurated that June after Nkurunziza died in office.

The president appoints a vice president, who must be approved separately by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament. Prosper Bazombanza was named vice president in June 2020, while Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, the former public security minister, was named prime minister. In September 2022, Ndayishimiye accused Bunyoni of planning a coup and removed him from office. Ndayishimiye then appointed former security minister Gervais Ndirakobuca as prime minister. Ndirakobuca’s appointment was unanimously approved in Parliament the same day.

Bunyoni was arrested in April 2023 and sentenced to life in prison in December on charges including plotting to overthrow the government, threatening the life of the president, destabilizing the economy, and illicit enrichment.

Parliament’s lower house, the National Assembly, includes 100 members who are directly elected via proportional representation along with 23 “co-opted” members to ensure that members of the Hutu ethnic group hold 60 percent of the house while Tutsis hold 40 percent. Members serve five-year terms. The upper house, the Senate, consists of 39 members, 36 of whom are chosen by locally elected officials for five-year terms. Three seats are reserved for the Twa ethnic group.

National Assembly elections took place concurrently with the May 2020 presidential elections, amid a campaign to repress opposition groups. The CNDD–FDD secured 86 seats, while the CNL secured 32 and UPRONA secured 2. The Twa received 3 seats via co-optation.

Senators were indirectly elected in July 2020; the CNDD–FDD received 34 seats, while the CNL and UPRONA each received 1. Twa members held 3 seats.

The five-member Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) is under the effective control of the ruling CNDD–FDD. In 2015, two members who fled the country amid that year’s unrest were replaced with pro-Nkurunziza appointees approved by a CNDD–FDD-controlled Parliament. Constitutional amendments extending presidential term limits, consolidating power in the executive, and allowing for a future revision of the Burundian ethnic power-sharing system were approved in a 2018 referendum that was marred by a violent intimidation campaign conducted by the CNDD–FDD.

CNL presidential candidate Rwasa challenged the conduct of the 2020 presidential election, alleging incidents of ballot-box stuffing, falsified election reports, and votes counted from deceased or exiled citizens. The Constitutional Court rejected that challenge in June of that year.

Political party formation is legally allowed, but the activities of opposition parties and political leaders are discouraged under the threat of retaliatory violence, repression, or arrest. In June 2023, the interior minister suspended the activities of the CNL due to alleged irregularities during its two previous congresses, in what the main opposition party called an attempt to destabilize and weaken it ahead of legislative elections scheduled for 2025.

Local and international monitoring groups, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Burundi Human Rights Initiative (BHRI), and Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT–Burundi) reported arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances of opposition party members and those suspected of opposing the government by the Imbonerakure and the National Intelligence Service (SNR) during 2023.

In October, Kefa Nibizi, president of the Council for Democracy and Sustainable Development in Burundi (CODEBU), a small opposition party, was arrested for “undermining the internal security of the state” after the party posted a message critical of the government on X, formerly Twitter, to mark the 62nd anniversary of the assassination of Burundian independence leader Prince Louis Rwagasore. Nibizi was released on bail five days later.

The opposition has little realistic opportunity to increase its popular support through elections. Opposition parties, politicians, and their supporters face harassment, intimidation, and assassination. Many are forced to operate in exile.

The Imbonerakure, SNR, and police are allies of the CNDD–FDD and use violence and intimidation to influence people’s political choices. In September 2023, CNDD–FDD secretary general Révérien Ndikuriyo, during a speech in northern Burundi called on supporters to eliminate “wolves,” which some saw as a call for violence against those who did not support the ruling party.

The 2005 constitution requires power-sharing between Hutus and Tutsis in Parliament, and additionally stipulates that women and Twa representatives be seated in both houses. Imelde Sabushimike, who was appointed as human rights minister in June 2020, is Burundi’s first Twa cabinet minister.

Women face social pressure that can deter active political participation, and few women hold political office at senior levels.

The ruling CNDD–FDD, and particularly President Ndayishimiye, whose election to power fell far short of standards for free and fair elections, controls policy development and implementation.

The president’s close circle, which some describe as a parallel government, includes generals who were close to his predecessor, such as Prime Niyongabo, the armed forces chief of staff, and Prime Minister Ndirakobuca.

Corruption is rampant in Burundi. Corrupt officials generally enjoy impunity, even when wrongdoing is exposed by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other actors. Anticorruption organizations are underresourced and ineffective.

Though President Ndayishimiye has vowed to address corruption, his actions in office have been contradictory. The Ndayishimiye administration dismissed over 120 government employees for embezzlement in 2021, though none of them faced prosecution. The president has also reorganized Burundian anticorruption bodies since taking office, abolishing an anticorruption court and an anticorruption brigade and placing their functions within existing offices.

In October 2023, President Ndayishimiye fired central bank governor Dieudonné Murengerantwari; days later, the Justice Ministry announced that Murengerantwari had been arrested for alleged “passive corruption,” money laundering, and misappropriating public funds.

Government operations are opaque, and government officials are generally unaccountable to voters. There are few opportunities for civil society actors and others to participate in policymaking. Due to recurrent assassinations and assassination attempts, politicians are wary of organizing town hall–style meetings or making other public appearances before voters.

Freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed but severely restricted in practice by draconian press laws and a dangerous operating environment for media workers, who face threats, harassment, and arrest in response to their coverage.

Journalist Floriane Irangabiye—who co-founded a Rwanda-based news outlet run by Burundian exiles that has been critical of Burundi’s government—was detained in August 2022. In January 2023, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 1 million Burundian francs ($480) on charges of endangering the integrity of the national territory. An appellate court upheld her conviction in May.

Freedom of religion is generally observed. However, relations between the government and the Roman Catholic Church, of which most Burundians are members, have worsened in recent years. In 2019, the UN CoI reported that the government was exerting more control over churches to curb political dissent.

Both university students and staff who support the CNDD–FDD receive preferential treatment at academic institutions. Continued intimidation of opposition supporters has created an atmosphere of fear and limited free speech on university campuses. Reports indicate that teachers allied to the CNDD–FDD have intimidated students who are considered unsupportive, in some cases preventing them from attending school. Teachers are increasingly screened for political loyalty to the ruling party.

While freedom of expression on political matters is constitutionally guaranteed, in practice Burundians generally do not feel safe discussing issues related to the government or politics. There is a reluctance to engage in speech that could be perceived as critical of the CNDD–FDD for fear of reprisal. The SNR and the Imbonerakure actively surveil private citizens. Social media and messaging applications were notably blocked on election day in 2020.

Opposition or antigovernment meetings and rallies are usually prevented or dispersed by law enforcement or the Imbonerakure, and participants face harassment or arrest. Many people who participated in the 2015 protests against late president Nkurunziza fled Burundi amid a subsequent crackdown.

In 2021, the UN CoI noted that the harshest restrictions on assembly were effectively loosened after the 2020 elections, as the CNL was perceived as a less acute threat to the CNDD–FDD. The UN Human Rights Committee in its July 2023 report on Burundi found that the government now required only notification for political demonstrations, instead of registration.

NGOs in Burundi face restrictive registration laws and persecution for activity seen as hostile to the government. Human rights advocates can face arrest and imprisonment.

In February 2023, intelligence agents arrested five human rights defenders, two of whom work for Association of Women Lawyers of Burundi (AFJB) and three of whom work for the Association for Peace and the Promotion of Human Rights in Burundi (APDH). The five were initially charged with rebellion, undermining internal state security, and undermining the functioning of public finances, reportedly due to their connections with international NGOs. According to HRW, two were convicted of rebellion and handed fines of 50,000 Burundian francs ($24) and two-year suspended sentences; all of the other charges were either dropped or the defendants were acquitted. All five were released in April.

The constitution provides protections for organized labor, and the labor code guarantees the right to strike. However, it is unlikely that union members would feel free to exercise legally guaranteed collective bargaining rights in the current political climate.

The judiciary is hindered by corruption and a lack of resources and training. The judiciary is generally subservient to the executive, which regularly interferes in the criminal justice system to protect CNDD–FDD and Imbonerakure members and persecute the political opposition. In 2022, in a video that was circulated widely on social media, President Ndayishimiye declared that “justice belongs to the state” and that “a state never violates the law.”

President Ndayishimiye has repeatedly accused the judiciary of corruption, including in a high-profile speech in September 2023. In 2022, he dismissed 40 judges accused of corruption and mismanagement. The judges were convicted on corruption-related charges and issued sentences ranging from 1 to 30 years in prison as well as fines of up to 3.3 million Burundian francs ($1,592).

The courts, police, and security forces do not operate independently or professionally, and constitutional guarantees of due process are generally not upheld. Arbitrary arrest and lengthy pretrial detention are common.

In 2017, the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed by the government. Burundi left the ICC days later, becoming the first country in the world to do so.

The security situation in Burundi remains extremely poor. A 2021 UN CoI report notes that widespread human rights violations persist, including forced disappearance, execution, torture, and arbitrary arrest and detention. The report identified the SNR as the principal perpetrator, though it also noted the involvement of the Imbonerakure and police.

According to a 2022 BHRI report, hundreds of Burundian soldiers and untrained Imbonerakure members were “secretly deployed” to fight RED–Tabara, a Burundian armed opposition group located in the DRC, as early as December 2021. Burundian troops officially entered the DRC in August 2022 as part of an East African Community (EAC) mission meant to help the Congolese fight armed groups active in the east of that country. In December 2023, an attack claimed by RED–Tabara left around 20 people dead, including members of the security forces and civilians, in a Burundian village near the DRC border. President Ndayishimiye accused Rwanda of supporting the rebels.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 248,000 Burundian refugees resided in nearby countries as of October 2023, with about 155,000 of them in Tanzania. The CNDD–FDD apparatus has violently targeted returning refugees on suspicion of opposition sympathies, along with individuals suspected of having ties to Burundian rebels operating in the DRC.

The Burundian prison system is overcrowded. The UN Committee against Torture reported that although Burundian prisons have an official capacity of approximately 4,290, nearly 12,000 inmates were imprisoned as of June 2023.

Despite quotas for representation in the National Assembly, the Twa population remains marginalized relative to the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. People living with albinism face systematic discrimination and violence.

LGBT+ people also experience official and societal discrimination. The 2009 penal code criminalizes same-sex sexual activity, and punishments include up to two years in prison. In February 2023, 24 members of a nonprofit focused on HIV/AIDS were arrested in Gitega as part of a crackdown on “homosexual practices”; they were charged in March with “homosexual practices” and “incitement to homosexual practices.” In December, President Ndayishimiye called for gay people to be stoned. Human rights activists expressed concern that the president’s comments represented an escalation of the crackdown on Burundi’s LGBT+ community and could lead to extrajudicial killings.

Discrimination against women is common in access to education, healthcare, and employment.

Since 2015, concerns for personal safety have restricted free movement, particularly in neighborhoods regarded as opposition strongholds and where security forces frequently conduct search operations. In 2020, the UN CoI reported that the Imbonerakure maintained a checkpoint system to control population movement, despite official instructions for the organization to refrain from such activity. Some local authorities have imposed curfews on women and girls.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), there were nearly 77,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Burundi as of May 2023.

Land conflict has been an explosive issue in Burundi for decades, and it was exacerbated by the return of displaced populations after the end of the civil war in 2005. Many returnees found new owners occupying their land, and the courts have often failed to fairly adjudicate land disputes.

Due to customary law, women are typically unable to inherit property. The fragile security situation hampers private business activity in Burundi, as does rampant corruption.

Sexual and domestic violence are serious problems but are rarely reported to law enforcement agencies. Rights monitors continue to report sexual violence carried out by security forces and the Imbonerakure, who act with impunity. Women are often targeted for rape if they or their spouses refuse to join the CNDD–FDD. Men sometimes experience sexual abuse while in government custody.

According to the citizenship code, a Burundian woman married to a foreign national cannot pass on her citizenship to her husband or children.

Individuals not allied with the ruling party may lose their employment. Community service requirements have taken on political overtones, such as building offices for the CNDD–FDD, amounting to what a 2019 UN report called forced labor.

Women have limited opportunities for advancement in the workplace. Much of the population is impoverished. In 2017, “vagrancy” and begging by able-bodied persons became formal offenses under the penal code.

Human trafficking continues to be a serious issue in Burundi, with the IOM counting 1,160 trafficking victims between June 2021 and June 2023, 85 percent of whom were women and girls. In July 2023, the Burundian government, with the support of the IOM, launched a five-year plan to combat human trafficking through the creation of tailored assistance and response programs. According to the US State Department’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, the government has continued to expand investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of traffickers. However, the report also noted that corruption and complicity by government officials in trafficking remain “significant concerns.”