Burundi has announced an ‘official hunt’ for LGBTI people.

Several LGBTI people, including teenagers, are being held in jails and forced to pay extortionate bribes for their freedom.

Those who can’t afford it face beatings, extreme fines or up to two years’ imprisonment.

Nestled between Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania, the landlocked country of Burundi was one of 13 to vote against the United Nations ban on using the death penalty for gay people.

‘The government says homosexuality is against Burundi culture’

Police announced the ‘hunt’ for homosexuals on 6 October, informing the media ‘several’ had been arrested.

Polisi ya #Burundi yatangaza kuwasaka na kupambana na watu wanaojihusisha na mapenzi ya jinsia moja.Tayari watu kadhaa wamekamatwa.#LGBT pic.twitter.com/VFNSv9KFw0 — BAKARI Ubena (@BakariUbena) October 6, 2017

‘The reason is just they are gay, and the government says it is against Burundian culture,’ Bakari Ubena, a human rights journalist, told Gay Star News.

It is believed the UN motion had ‘some influence on the crackdown’. Both gay and trans people face arrests.

‘Gay people must have a hidden life,’ Ubena added. ‘LGBT associations have been closed by police.’

Teens arrested for ‘dancing together’ as part of anti-LGBTI crackdown

Jean-Daniel Ndikumana, a gay advocate from Burundi now working as the head of a LGBTI asylum project in Belgium, condemned the arrests.

On 4 October, two days before the announcement, police handcuffed seven LGBTI people in a Kamenge youth commune and took them away.

Two of the men were under the age of 18.

‘It is a commune of suburbs where the population is not open-minded at all,’ Ndikumana told Gay Star News.

He says he believes police found a video and photos of men dancing together on Facebook.

Burundi in ‘spiral of political violence and widespread human rights abuses’

‘I was afraid when I saw this video, given the situation of Burundi for LGBTI people,’ he added.

‘I know them very well because I was their project manager from 2010 to 2013. Thankfully, I was able to leave my country because of my sexual orientation, as I was in danger due to my activism.’

President Pierre Nkurunziza, in 2009, enforced the ban on homosexuality in Burundi’s Penal Code.

And according to Human Rights Watch, because of the sitting president, Burundi is in a ‘spiral of political violence and widespread human rights abuses’.

The youth wing of the ruling party ‘target opponents and perceived opponents who they kill, rape, torture, forcibly disappear, or ill-treat. The ruling party has banned the most prominent Burundian human rights organizations.