Burundi: RFI condemns attacks against its ex-correspondent by President Ndayishimiye
Burundi President Évariste Ndayishimiye, here in Kisumu, Kenya, on May 31, 2020, during the inauguration of the city's new port.
© AFP - BRIAN ONGORO
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye specifically attacked RFI journalist Esdras Ndikumana on Tuesday, August 31, during a speech in a stadium, accusing him of wanting to “
destroy
” Burundi by revealing a grim picture of the Covid situation. 19 in the country.
Radio France Internationale protested in a
press
release on Thursday, September 2 against the “
verbal attacks
” and these “
unfounded and absurd
” accusations made against the journalist, as did Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
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By press release, RFI protests against the attacks against our colleague Esdras Ndikumana.
RFI was amazed to learn of the two successive verbal attacks launched by the President of Burundi against his journalist Esdras Ndikumana, a former correspondent in Bujumbura. RFI protests against the unfounded and absurd accusations that his collaborator "dreams of seeing Burundians die of Covid-19" and feeds hostile feelings towards the President of Burundi.
RFI fully supports Esdras Ndikumana, who was violently physically attacked in Bujumbura in August 2015 and who now lives in exile.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic,
the entire RFI editorial staff has reported on the health situation in Burundi
, as in all countries of the world, with professionalism and the greatest objectivity, based on testimonies cross-checked and verified.
In another press release, the Society of Journalists of RFI strongly denounces these attacks.
"
The SDJ considers unacceptable these attacks which endanger a journalist concerned about his work and best describing the health situation of the country
", insists the press release.
On two occasions, on August 19 and 31, the Head of State verbally attacked our colleague, very violently, in public. Évariste Ndayishimiye criticizes our journalist for his coverage of the pandemic. He also attacked a second Burundian journalist, Antoine Kaburahe, founder of the media Iwacu.
The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also condemned “
serious and dangerous comments
” by President Évariste Ndayishimiye, elected in June 2020 after the sudden death of Pierre Nkurunziza. "
While Burundi is facing
a resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic
, President Évariste Ndayishimiye has publicly
attacked
, twice in less than two weeks, the Burundian journalist from RFI Esdras Ndikumana
", deplores RSF in a press release published on Wednesday 1 September.
“
We strongly condemn these comments, which are serious and extremely dangerous.
To say of a journalist that he promotes poverty in his country, he has been accused of destabilization, is to discredit his work and threaten all journalists in Burundi.
It is also a sad reminder of the fragility of press freedom in Burundi,
”the head of RSF's Africa office, Arnaud Froger, said on our channels.
In the press freedom ranking established by RSF, Burundi occupies 147th place out of 180.
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Burundi
Journalism
Freedom of press
Évariste Ndayishimiye