Rights commission investigates death of man beaten at Burundi’s state investment agency

Burundi’s National Independent Human Rights Commission (CNIDH) says it is following the investigation into the death of Bruce Sebanza, a former employee of the Burundi Development Agency (ADB). Sebanza died after being beaten by guards at the agency’s premises in Bujumbura this week. The commission confirmed the death and said the case has been sent to the judicial police, who are still investigating.

The case matters because of where it happened and who is accused. The ADB is a public administrative body under the supervision of the Presidency of the Republic. It was set up by decree in November 2021 to replace the former Investment Promotion Agency. It is also the government body that presents Burundi to foreign investors. FOCODE, a Burundian civil society organisation, has gone further than the commission. It alleges that the agency’s director general, Réverien Nizigiyimana, ordered the beating and took part in it. Neither Nizigiyimana, the security company Ulinzi Kazi nor the police have publicly responded to that allegation.

Bishop Martin Blaise Nyaboho, who chairs the CNIDH, said he went to the agency on Friday, October 16, to establish what had happened. According to his account, Sebanza entered the premises at about 2 a.m. and got into a fight with the guards on duty, injuring one of them. The guards then beat him while he was tied up. Nyaboho said the director general and a guard were questioned at the police station in Gihosha zone, in Bujumbura, and the file was then sent to the judicial police. Officers there told him the case was being worked on. Nyaboho said he was saddened by the death, called on the authorities to establish the truth, and said the commission would follow the case until they did.

The two accounts differ on important points. The CNIDH gives the night of Monday, October 12, as the date of the incident. FOCODE, in a report published on October 15, places it on the night of Tuesday, October 13.

FOCODE’s version is based on what it calls concordant sources, none of them named. It says guards from Ulinzi Kazi, which handles night security at the agency, caught Sebanza and called the director general, who came to the premises. It was reported that, Nizigiyimana ordered the guards to beat Sebanza and joined in. The group says he then tried to hand the injured man to the police, who refused to take him and asked that he first be taken to hospital. Source alleges that Sebanza was instead kept at the agency until he died. It also says the military hospital’s morgue at first refused to accept the body until the family came forward. All of these claims remain unverified.

Source also says the director general and the guards were questioned at the Gihosha police station and then went home. Nyaboho’s account says only that the investigation continues. Neither source reports any arrest.

Sources say relations between Sebanza and Nizigiyimana broke down after Nizigiyimana took over the agency in 2024. In 2025, Sebanza spent several months in Mpimba, Bujumbura’s central prison. FOCODE accuses the director general of having him jailed, but says it could not establish whether Sebanza was later acquitted or only granted provisional release. The classmate says he was tried and won his case. After his release, Sebanza tried repeatedly to get his job back and was refused. “He was a gentle man,” the classmate said.

The same witness said Sebanza had first been hired when the agency was still the Investment Promotion Agency, with the help of a paternal uncle, Serges Ndayiragije, then minister for good governance. He also relayed the account of a military hospital worker who described the body as severely injured. FOCODE notes that this secondhand description has not been checked against medical findings. No autopsy results have been made public.

FOCODE has written to the prosecutor general, Rose Nkorerimana, asking for everyone involved to be arrested before Sebanza is buried. The date of the funeral has not been announced.