Injustice against Kulihoshi Pecos for being arrested in Burundi: Pecos has worked on the situation of Burudian refugees for 15 years now

The Government of Burundi decided to imprison Congolese in the name of security reasons, claiming to look for M23 who might have infiltrated among those running away:  How do you arrest Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos yet he has spent half of his life working on Burundian Refugee issues in Both Uganda and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos is a human rights defender specialized in the promotion of refugee rights in the Great Lakes Region, Pecos is 47 years currently, he became a refugee in Uganda at the age of 23 years, so for the last 24 years Pecos is involved in the promotion of refugee rights, and for the last 15 years Pecos has in particular way been involved in the protection of Burundian refugees both in Uganda since 2010 up to 2020 and in DRCongo in 2021 up to now. With all these activities and efforts, sacrifices Pecos has made yet he has deployed all his efforts on supporting Burundian refugees, was injustice against Pecos and failure to recognize al what he did on behalf of refugees especially Burundians.

It was shock, difficult to understand, on that very Sunday of February 16^th, 2025 there was a fighting between DRC Forces and the local militia called Wazalendo in Uvira where Pecos had stayed together with other people who refused to be in areas controlled by the M23 backed by Rwanda.

During this fighting the only available option was to move towards Burundi through Gatumba border, holding his Pass-Port Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos was allowed to enter and issued a visa, just at a distance of less than 5m in Burundi from entry point Pecos together with all other people were first of all stopped and were all told to wait for orders, under the heavy sunshine, sitting on the floor for five (5) hours without water to drink, many had not yet eaten because there was no food in Uvira where they came from.  

Then around four (4) pm the Burundi Police came with Police Lorries and instructed everybody to enter in and if no to go back to DRC. No explanation was given to people, near the Police stood some people from the International Organization of Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees who remained powerless and whose expertise was not considered.

Pecos and all people were then driven to a Center in Gatumba where they stayed under the rain for two hours heavily guarded by the Police and the Army like criminals, around 6am they were then taken to UNHCR Transit Center in Kihanga under military escort. It was under this center where finally more details emerged that Burundi is looking for M23 that might have infiltrated among forced migrants. The UNHCR Transit Center which was supposed to receive Burundian refugees who opt to repatriate was turned into a prison in which innocent people paid a heavy place. At each 5m in that center there was armed people, to ensure that no one may escape and were instructed to kill.

At the end, people were asked to show their documents only in order to justify those who were staying in Bujumbura, those who are going to refugee camps and those who are leaving Burundi. They did not check the bags of no one in order to look for guns, they did not interview anyone in order to find out from the background of each person, they just placed people in that center which was not even capable to receive the numbers, and after three days (3) Kulihoshi Pecos presented a Bus Ticket that he was in transit towards Tanzania and then he was released but Pecos did not go to Tanzania, he remained in Bujumbura and there was no follow up.

The intention of Burundi Government was to submit people to hardship, suffering and create a humanitarian disaster through diseases outbreak which unfortunately did not happen. All people who crossed into Burundi were arrested including Tanzanians, Burundians and Kenyans, on top of that thousands of Congolese students in different universities in Bujumbura were also arrested and transferred to that very center.

The second objective of the Government of Burundi was to create refugees by force, in order to show that there is a refugee crisis in Burundi and call upon emergency relief. In order to achieve this, on Tuesday which was our second day in the center and as no one was allowed to exit, Burundi Government mobilized some media groups to come and see the crowd of people in Kihanga and thereafter media reports indicated that the transit center had more than 6,000 people and called it a crisis and all people in the center were presented as asylum seekers to the media which was not the case. The fact is that people were compelled in that center and they were not all Congolese, and among Congolese we had hundreds of students in different universities in Burundi, showing that all people in Kahanga Transit Center were Congolese fleeing the war, was misleading, unfortunately UNHCR in Burundi could not do much and there was independent media groups.

It was after the media coverage on Tuesday that people started moving out and many where released from the Kihanda Transit Center, and taking people to the center stopped in a week when the number of people from DRCongo reduced. Good enough the expected disaster did not come up.