Johannesburg – Media organisations are calling for the release of four Burundian journalists who have been charged with undermining national security after they were arrested while covering fighting with rebels from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Judicial sources on Sunday confirmed the arrests of the reporters, who work for the Iwacu newspaper, after the reporters were arrested last week while trying to speak to residents who were fleeing the fighting between rebels and the army in Bubanza in north-west Rwanda, the East African reported.
At least 14 members of the RED-Tabara, an organisation based in eastern DRC, and headed by a Burundian opposition figure, have been killed in the violence the first of its kind in Burundi since 2017.
The reporters are currently incarcerated in Bubanza’s central prison and face the possibility of five to 10 years imprisonment if convicted.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Human Rights Watch have called for the journalists' immediate release.