The UN has warned that “a complete breakdown of law and order is just around the corner” in Burundi as it examines allegations of gang-rapes, enforced disappearances and the digging of mass graves during the eruption of violence that left dozens of people dead last month.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said growing reports of atrocities in the east African country meant that “all the alarm signals – including the increasing ethnic dimension of the crisis – are flashing red”.



His warning came as a court in Burundi sentenced four military generals to life in prison over allegations that they led last May’s failed coup.

According to the UN, at least 439 people have been killed in Burundi since protests began in April against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s ultimately successful quest for a third term, while an estimated 230,000 people have fled to neighbouring states.

Last month alone, 130 people were killed – most of them on 11 and 12 December, when government security forces and members of the Imbonerakure, the armed militia of the ruling CNDD-FDD party’s youth wing, responded to attacks on three military camps by raiding civilian areas of the capital, Bujumbura.

“We have documented 13 cases of sexual violence against women, which began during the search and arrest operations that took place after the December events in the neighbourhoods perceived as supportive of the opposition,” said Zeid.



“The pattern was similar in all cases: security forces allegedly entered the victims’ houses, separated the women from their families, and raped – in some cases gang-raped – them.”



The high commissioner said his office had heard numerous allegations that many young men arrested by the security forces and the Imbonerakure had later been tortured, killed, or taken to unknown destinations.

“Despite these allegations of large-scale arrests, my office is finding that only a small proportion of them appear to be in official places of detention,” Zeid said.

“The increasing number of enforced disappearances, coupled with allegations of secret detention facilities and mass graves, is extremely alarming.”



He said witnesses had spoken about the existence of at least nine such mass graves in and around the capital. The sites are thought to contain more than 100 bodies of people allegedly killed on 11 December. According to reports, members of the Imbonerakure used threats or the promise of money to compel people to dig the graves, only to murder some of the grave-diggers afterwards.

“My office is analysing satellite images in an effort to shed more light on these extremely serious allegations,” the high commissioner said.

Last month, Zeid warned that Burundi was on the “very cusp” of another civil war, saying the current violence contained echoes of the country’s 12-year internal conflict, during which 300,000 people were killed as Hutus rebelled against the Tutsi-dominated armed forces.



Zeid’s office said that the latest testimony gathered from the raided neighbourhoods suggested Tutsis had been targeted, adding that it was beginning to discern “an ethnic dimension” to December’s violence. One of the women who was sexually abused said she had been told that she was “paying the price for being a Tutsi”, while in Bujumbura’s Nyakabiga neighbourhood, another witness said Hutus were spared while Tutsis were systematically killed.

Zeid said that while he welcomed the government’s decision to investigate the allegations of mass graves, it was “abundantly clear” that an independent investigation was needed and that the alleged graves needed to be safeguarded in the meantime.



He also repeated his warning that Burundi was on the threshold of a return to the carnage of the past.



“There is rampant impunity for all the human rights violations being committed by security forces and the Imbonerakure, despite ample evidence that they are responsible for more and more serious crimes,” Zeid said.



“This is an indication that a complete breakdown in law and order is just around the corner and, with armed opposition groups also becoming more active, and the potentially lethal ethnic dimension starting to rear its head, this will inevitably end in disaster if the current rapidly deteriorating trajectory continues.”



In November last year, the high commissioner called on the UN security council to consider all options for ending the violence, including travel bans and asset freezes.